Does anyone else find it a little disconcerting that, "according to a recent Evans Data Corporation survey, developers who are migrating now from Visual Basic are moving to Java and C# in roughly equal numbers." What good is a few years head start and breathless hyperbole from the entire technology industry when Microsoft can simply create a new competitive product and quickly catch up? Java may well continue to be quite successful even though it has under-delivered, but that could mean little with C#,.NET, and whatever else comes out of Redmond. Does Java have enough momentum to thrive?
"Is there any evidence that the.99 theory works with big budget items?"
It depends on the target consumer. Certainly it is used with large items like cars. It's typical to see prices like $18,995. But in luxury goods the tactic is rarely used. A room at a luxury hotel may be $300 a night and not $299. The fillet mignon at an upscale restaurant may be $38, not $37.99. In fact it will probably be written as "38" with no dollar sign or decimals. Going further down the scale you see an even more extreme example in gasoline prices where fractions of a cent are used (e.g., $1.299/gallon). My comments apply specifically to the U.S. market.
a jury could reasonably conclude that the log showing you downloaded a 10,303,334mb file named "Metallica_Enter_Sandman.mp3" on such and such day is evidence that you downloaded a copyrighted song.
I find it inconceivable that the name of a file in a log is sufficient proof of criminal conduct. If I rename workout_log.xls to bush_assassination_plan.doc am I guilty of a criminal conspiracy to kill the President? No, of course not. If there is sufficient evidence of illegal activity a search warrant would be required to look at the actual content of a file. But, you're right about one point. These days a jury could conclude almost anything despite the evidence or the facts.
I mean, isnt it time to get a new provider? If everyone left, then maybe they'd fight the fight again...
I seem to remember Verizon refusing to turn over the subscriber names to the RIAA and fighting a court battle for their privacy. Only after losing that fight and being ordered by the courts to turn over the information did they finally consent. And even then they waited until the imposed deadline. Now you are advocating that everyone leave a provider that resisted and fought the RIAA? Just because they ultimately lost in court? Good luck finding many with the balls to challenge the RIAA. I've never used Verizon for any service, but I'd hardly fault them for this.
According to the Tom's Hardware article, WinFS is the "Windows Future Storage" File System. Not what I guessed FS stood for, but there it is. Nothing recursive about it. And it's better than "NT technology."
"How do the screens hold up to human oils? Or the constant pressure of someones wrist on it?"
Tablet PC screens are not touch-sensitive and thus do not have the layer of flexible, scratchable plastic film that PDAs do. Tablets require the use of their own pen which emits a small magnetic field sensed by the Tablet. Thus the Tablet screen knows when the pen is close. At that point it activates the cursor which you move around with the pen near, but not touching, the screen. Then when the pen actually touches the screen the Tablet activates the on-screen "ink" mode. Since Tablet PCs have much larger screens than a PDA you are likely to have your hand resting on the screen. They are designed for that and your wrist would not affect it.
I have a differing opinion on this concept of consumers having "control over their computers and the ability to decide what software they want to utilize." Surely this is not a popular opinion around here, but shouldn't we accept as legitimate the concept of subsidized hardware based on a subscription? This is most typified by wireless phones. Anyone can get a free mobile phone by signing up for a wireless service contract and agreeing to pay the fees for a specified period of time, typically one or two years. Part of those fees goes toward the initial cost of the device that the user got for free or a subsidized cost. Now even if we don't like it can't we accept that the X-Box is priced the same way? The X-Box buyer gets the unit cheaply (subsidized if you will) because of the condition that it is locked to specific software - authorized games that generate fees for Microsoft.
Instead of arguing that consumers should have some inherent right to do as they wish with any hardware they buy shouldn't we fight for the option to purchase such unrestricted hardware at an unsubsidized price? It's unrealistic to suggest that Microsoft or any other company provide cheap, even below-cost, hardware and not recoup their development costs. And it wouldn't look like such an attractive project to get Linux running on a $2000 unrestricted version, would it? I just think it is fair to accept that it is not just restricted hardware locking you into an evil vendor, but rather subsidized hardware purchased with an explicit service contract.
And even at that level of ease vs. security there are inconveniences for less technically inclined users. Having to enter an administrator password every time one installs something under OS X is an annoyance. I won't argue whether it's better (safer, etc.), just that it does introduce a new hurdle for novices. Outside of the geek community that understands and argues about such things is the real world where products need to be delivered with ease of use to the masses.
All data passing through a Cisco switch or router can already be examined, observed, or archived. I've designed countless Cisco networks with intrusion detection in either hardware or IOS. If the government is demanding accountability for data traffic then something has to be added to the network to make that data available. Just as with external IDS this causes bottlenecks.
If companies are forced to comply with government and law-enforcement demands then they want a way to comply with the least disruption to their business. Remember we are talking about ISPs here. Your personal equipment is not going to have a jack that Ashcroft can plug into to get his kicks from reading your IMs.
This is reality now. It will do no good to direct your rage at Cisco. Exercise your rights, and your brain, by voting. Your fantasy that the market leader is going to take a stand for individual rights in the face of draconian Federal policy and change the course of history is laughable.
Re:It's not that much better, it's just handy
on
Safari Beta 2 Available
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· Score: 2, Informative
I would still like a spell checker feature in the text area box. But I guess I cant have it all.
Ah, but you can. The spell-checking feature has been in Safari for a few releases. Simply click into a text box and then you can activate it by right-clicking, by selecting Spelling under the Edit menu, or with the keyboard shortcut - Apple-: (Command-colon). There is also an option to check spelling as you type, but it has no keyboard shortcut. I hope someone writes an Applescript to activate it on any page in the slashdot.org domain.
They certainly don't need to be doing research of any kind for the type of trash they are putting out these days. More like job justification for some "researchers" to troll message boards all day. But if their consumer preference model is based on the denizens of online message boards, that explains a lot.
1) There is no 'Menu' button. I do not want to have to run an Application to get a list of programs which I then have to click through. Mouse-over opening menus is nice. It doesn't have to be called Start, or 'K', or anything fancy but a button that has menus and sub-menus listing my appications would be a start.
Do you mean that you don't want to have to got to the Finder application to get to the Applications folder to find a list of your applications? You'd rather have something like Windows' Start button? You can drag folders, including your Home folder or the Applications folder to the dock (the section past the divider near the Trash). Then you can right-click those always-available folders to list their contents. Very similar to a Start button.
6) I want the maximise button (the +) to fscking well maximise. I don't mean 'get bigger' - I WILL DRAG THE WINDOW IF I WANT THAT. I WANT YOU TO MAXIMISE.
Maximizing in Windows works because all an application's windows are contained within the parent window. The Mac way is to have windows be separate elements on the screen independent of each other. So it doesn't make sense to have a maximize function fill the screen with any one window. The green light button makes the window as large as it needs to be based on what it contains. So for a web browser showing a page like Slashdot it would expand vertically to fill the screen but not horizontally where it is not necessary.
9) I don't want to wait 10 minutes to boot up, which it sometimes feels like I have to.
Yikes, I am running OS X on a G3/233 with only 160MB RAM and I don't wait anywhere near 10 minutes to boot up. But then I hate it when people trivialize my concerns because it doesn't happen to them. Sorry.
"Hmmm. Let's see. Oh yeah, we can't make carbon nanotubes longer than a micron in the laboratory or more than half the required strength for the elevator."
And since we didn't have transistors in 1945 I guess we are not even having this conversation today, are we?
It appears that Microsoft's famously successful Embrace and Extend strategy can apply to concepts as well as technologies. Expect to see Shared Source (i.e., Open Source with proprietary extensions for improved performance on Windows only) heavily promoted as a new Windows development tool.
Re:Please don't give 'Funny' comments to interview
on
Kevin Mitnick Answers
·
· Score: 1
I don't think it's so "funny." This guy just gets out of prison and makes an off-handed joke about guessing somebody's password and I nearly crap my pants. The bottom line is that I quickly changed a couple of passwords after reading that!
See, he's already contributing to the betterment of society. Or at least helping me to not be so stupid.
Earthlink says "Hey, AOL Time Warner, wanna rent us a ton of your bandwidth to use to compete directly against you?" For some reason, I doubt it.
Of course Earthlink wouldn't say that. But the federal government might. In fact, as a condition of the now infamous AOL-TimeWarner merger, concessions were made to regulators concerned about the mega-company's dominance in the burgeoning broadband market. As a result Earthlink was the first, and I believe still the only, company to be provided (guaranteed) access to AOLTW's cable subscribers. I, as a TimeWarner cable subscriber, can choose from RoadRunner, AOL Broadband, and Earthlink as my broadband ISP.
AOL's problem, IMHO, is that the much touted synergy of the giant media company could never take place with all the infighting and old media fiefdoms already entrenched at TimeWarner. If AOL's online service had more exclusive content from TW media properties, including HBO content for broadband subscribers, it would be an exiting alternative to other ISPs. But as it is each division treats the other as a separate company with no special access to content. Good for competition, but bad for the company as a whole and ultimately for shareholders.
I remember reading that you were not allowed a phone call from prison because you might be able to launch a nuclear weapon from a payphone. I don't endorse nuclear strikes for fun, but that's cool as Hell! What other super powers did you have?
Could you use your social engineering power to discover where Saddam is hiding his weapons? Or the "undisclosed, secret location" where Bush hides Cheney?
"Ugly table code! Your typical slashdot pageload is a humongous mess of hundreds upon hundreds of random tables nested in odd ways. If you want an example of a truly taxing test to throw at a web page renderer, slashdot's about as heavy as you can do."
YES! This page is the first one I hit after installing Safari. In fact Slashdot is the first thing I thought of while Jobs was demonstrating the product.
I love Safari already since it does not lock up my computer (233MHz iMac) for up to 5 minutes, like IE does, when loading a Slashdot page of infinite nested tables.
Wheeeee! Bring on more Slashdot... is this a good thing?
"Unfortunately, it makes you look like a retard.... When you buy a share of a company, you pretty much are putting money into the company for the purpose of exercising voting rights, or to use the share for financial gain."
You may indeed be buying voting rights with your shares, but you are not "putting money into the company" unless you buy during a public offering. You are almost always buying stock from another owner who is selling. Thus your money goes into the pocket of that seller. The company gets no benefit from the transaction.
"For the monthly price of AOL, I could subscribe to most of TW's print mags, including the truly useless ones like Business 2.0 - and get my Internet via the DSL account that I'm already happily using. I really can't see anyone switching to AOL, of all services, just to read the current issue of TW mags online."
Which "most" is that?
Time magazine is $29.95 for one year,
People is $113.88 for a year,
Sports Illustrated is $39 for one year,
the "truly useless" Business 2.0 is $19.95 for one year....
But, AOL's BYO plan is $15/month since you already have DSL. That's $180/year so you could have enough left over for a few of those $5 rocks yourself. That's assuming you would subscribe to those publications. But it's clear from your tone that you wouldn't. Many people do and for them, and current AOL subscribers, it might be a good deal.
Something along the lines of $10 a month for AOL users. $15 a month for non-members.
From what I read in the WSJ this morning the thought is to provide all the content to AOL members and teaser content to the web-browsing public. Ideally this would be at no additional charge to AOL members as a way to offer added value and bring on more subscribers.
One major reason AOLTW stock tanked is that subscriber growth dramatically decreased. Bringing that back may be just the Wall Street elixir they need. I'd love to see them implement digital access to more Time Warner properties. How about streaming/downloadable access to previous season episodes of the Sopranos, for example?
And if it is no additional charge for AOL members then it is $15 a month for you - the price of AOL's "Bring Your Own Access" plan.
"PPC's are.... more compatible with the software people use on their computers."
That's not actually true. Despite having the Microsoft brands ("Word," "Excel," etc.) on the Pocket Office apps, the office suites for PalmOS are more compatible with MS Office on the desktop. It's a sore spot among the PocketPC faithful that the Pocket Office apps chew up some file formatting during "round-tripping" - synching a file, modifying it on the PPC, and sending it back to the desktop app.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone else find it a little disconcerting that, "according to a recent Evans Data Corporation survey, developers who are migrating now from Visual Basic are moving to Java and C# in roughly equal numbers." What good is a few years head start and breathless hyperbole from the entire technology industry when Microsoft can simply create a new competitive product and quickly catch up? Java may well continue to be quite successful even though it has under-delivered, but that could mean little with C#, .NET, and whatever else comes out of Redmond. Does Java have enough momentum to thrive?
"Is there any evidence that the .99 theory works with big budget items?"
It depends on the target consumer. Certainly it is used with large items like cars. It's typical to see prices like $18,995. But in luxury goods the tactic is rarely used. A room at a luxury hotel may be $300 a night and not $299. The fillet mignon at an upscale restaurant may be $38, not $37.99. In fact it will probably be written as "38" with no dollar sign or decimals. Going further down the scale you see an even more extreme example in gasoline prices where fractions of a cent are used (e.g., $1.299/gallon). My comments apply specifically to the U.S. market.
Scott
In my defense I would like to state unequivocally that I love bush.
Patriotically,
Octagonmost
a jury could reasonably conclude that the log showing you downloaded a 10,303,334mb file named "Metallica_Enter_Sandman.mp3" on such and such day is evidence that you downloaded a copyrighted song.
I find it inconceivable that the name of a file in a log is sufficient proof of criminal conduct. If I rename workout_log.xls to bush_assassination_plan.doc am I guilty of a criminal conspiracy to kill the President? No, of course not. If there is sufficient evidence of illegal activity a search warrant would be required to look at the actual content of a file. But, you're right about one point. These days a jury could conclude almost anything despite the evidence or the facts.
And people stay with them.... why?
I mean, isnt it time to get a new provider? If everyone left, then maybe they'd fight the fight again...
I seem to remember Verizon refusing to turn over the subscriber names to the RIAA and fighting a court battle for their privacy. Only after losing that fight and being ordered by the courts to turn over the information did they finally consent. And even then they waited until the imposed deadline. Now you are advocating that everyone leave a provider that resisted and fought the RIAA? Just because they ultimately lost in court? Good luck finding many with the balls to challenge the RIAA. I've never used Verizon for any service, but I'd hardly fault them for this.
According to the Tom's Hardware article, WinFS is the "Windows Future Storage" File System. Not what I guessed FS stood for, but there it is. Nothing recursive about it. And it's better than "NT technology."
I also like the MAC, but I LOVE THE LLC!
Tablet PC screens are not touch-sensitive and thus do not have the layer of flexible, scratchable plastic film that PDAs do. Tablets require the use of their own pen which emits a small magnetic field sensed by the Tablet. Thus the Tablet screen knows when the pen is close. At that point it activates the cursor which you move around with the pen near, but not touching, the screen. Then when the pen actually touches the screen the Tablet activates the on-screen "ink" mode. Since Tablet PCs have much larger screens than a PDA you are likely to have your hand resting on the screen. They are designed for that and your wrist would not affect it.
I have a differing opinion on this concept of consumers having "control over their computers and the ability to decide what software they want to utilize." Surely this is not a popular opinion around here, but shouldn't we accept as legitimate the concept of subsidized hardware based on a subscription? This is most typified by wireless phones. Anyone can get a free mobile phone by signing up for a wireless service contract and agreeing to pay the fees for a specified period of time, typically one or two years. Part of those fees goes toward the initial cost of the device that the user got for free or a subsidized cost. Now even if we don't like it can't we accept that the X-Box is priced the same way? The X-Box buyer gets the unit cheaply (subsidized if you will) because of the condition that it is locked to specific software - authorized games that generate fees for Microsoft.
Instead of arguing that consumers should have some inherent right to do as they wish with any hardware they buy shouldn't we fight for the option to purchase such unrestricted hardware at an unsubsidized price? It's unrealistic to suggest that Microsoft or any other company provide cheap, even below-cost, hardware and not recoup their development costs. And it wouldn't look like such an attractive project to get Linux running on a $2000 unrestricted version, would it? I just think it is fair to accept that it is not just restricted hardware locking you into an evil vendor, but rather subsidized hardware purchased with an explicit service contract.
And even at that level of ease vs. security there are inconveniences for less technically inclined users. Having to enter an administrator password every time one installs something under OS X is an annoyance. I won't argue whether it's better (safer, etc.), just that it does introduce a new hurdle for novices. Outside of the geek community that understands and argues about such things is the real world where products need to be delivered with ease of use to the masses.
All data passing through a Cisco switch or router can already be examined, observed, or archived. I've designed countless Cisco networks with intrusion detection in either hardware or IOS. If the government is demanding accountability for data traffic then something has to be added to the network to make that data available. Just as with external IDS this causes bottlenecks.
If companies are forced to comply with government and law-enforcement demands then they want a way to comply with the least disruption to their business. Remember we are talking about ISPs here. Your personal equipment is not going to have a jack that Ashcroft can plug into to get his kicks from reading your IMs.
This is reality now. It will do no good to direct your rage at Cisco. Exercise your rights, and your brain, by voting. Your fantasy that the market leader is going to take a stand for individual rights in the face of draconian Federal policy and change the course of history is laughable.
Ah, but you can. The spell-checking feature has been in Safari for a few releases. Simply click into a text box and then you can activate it by right-clicking, by selecting Spelling under the Edit menu, or with the keyboard shortcut - Apple-: (Command-colon). There is also an option to check spelling as you type, but it has no keyboard shortcut. I hope someone writes an Applescript to activate it on any page in the slashdot.org domain.
They certainly don't need to be doing research of any kind for the type of trash they are putting out these days. More like job justification for some "researchers" to troll message boards all day. But if their consumer preference model is based on the denizens of online message boards, that explains a lot.
Do you mean that you don't want to have to got to the Finder application to get to the Applications folder to find a list of your applications? You'd rather have something like Windows' Start button? You can drag folders, including your Home folder or the Applications folder to the dock (the section past the divider near the Trash). Then you can right-click those always-available folders to list their contents. Very similar to a Start button.
6) I want the maximise button (the +) to fscking well maximise. I don't mean 'get bigger' - I WILL DRAG THE WINDOW IF I WANT THAT. I WANT YOU TO MAXIMISE.
Maximizing in Windows works because all an application's windows are contained within the parent window. The Mac way is to have windows be separate elements on the screen independent of each other. So it doesn't make sense to have a maximize function fill the screen with any one window. The green light button makes the window as large as it needs to be based on what it contains. So for a web browser showing a page like Slashdot it would expand vertically to fill the screen but not horizontally where it is not necessary.
9) I don't want to wait 10 minutes to boot up, which it sometimes feels like I have to.
Yikes, I am running OS X on a G3/233 with only 160MB RAM and I don't wait anywhere near 10 minutes to boot up. But then I hate it when people trivialize my concerns because it doesn't happen to them. Sorry.
And since we didn't have transistors in 1945 I guess we are not even having this conversation today, are we?
It appears that Microsoft's famously successful Embrace and Extend strategy can apply to concepts as well as technologies. Expect to see Shared Source (i.e., Open Source with proprietary extensions for improved performance on Windows only) heavily promoted as a new Windows development tool.
I don't think it's so "funny." This guy just gets out of prison and makes an off-handed joke about guessing somebody's password and I nearly crap my pants. The bottom line is that I quickly changed a couple of passwords after reading that!
See, he's already contributing to the betterment of society. Or at least helping me to not be so stupid.
Sincerely,
Sc077
Of course Earthlink wouldn't say that. But the federal government might. In fact, as a condition of the now infamous AOL-TimeWarner merger, concessions were made to regulators concerned about the mega-company's dominance in the burgeoning broadband market. As a result Earthlink was the first, and I believe still the only, company to be provided (guaranteed) access to AOLTW's cable subscribers. I, as a TimeWarner cable subscriber, can choose from RoadRunner, AOL Broadband, and Earthlink as my broadband ISP.
AOL's problem, IMHO, is that the much touted synergy of the giant media company could never take place with all the infighting and old media fiefdoms already entrenched at TimeWarner. If AOL's online service had more exclusive content from TW media properties, including HBO content for broadband subscribers, it would be an exiting alternative to other ISPs. But as it is each division treats the other as a separate company with no special access to content. Good for competition, but bad for the company as a whole and ultimately for shareholders.
Could you use your social engineering power to discover where Saddam is hiding his weapons? Or the "undisclosed, secret location" where Bush hides Cheney?
When will that be?
YES! This page is the first one I hit after installing Safari. In fact Slashdot is the first thing I thought of while Jobs was demonstrating the product.
I love Safari already since it does not lock up my computer (233MHz iMac) for up to 5 minutes, like IE does, when loading a Slashdot page of infinite nested tables.
Wheeeee! Bring on more Slashdot ... is this a good thing?
You may indeed be buying voting rights with your shares, but you are not "putting money into the company" unless you buy during a public offering. You are almost always buying stock from another owner who is selling. Thus your money goes into the pocket of that seller. The company gets no benefit from the transaction.
Which "most" is that?
Time magazine is $29.95 for one year, People is $113.88 for a year, Sports Illustrated is $39 for one year, the "truly useless" Business 2.0 is $19.95 for one year....
But, AOL's BYO plan is $15/month since you already have DSL. That's $180/year so you could have enough left over for a few of those $5 rocks yourself. That's assuming you would subscribe to those publications. But it's clear from your tone that you wouldn't. Many people do and for them, and current AOL subscribers, it might be a good deal.
From what I read in the WSJ this morning the thought is to provide all the content to AOL members and teaser content to the web-browsing public. Ideally this would be at no additional charge to AOL members as a way to offer added value and bring on more subscribers.
One major reason AOLTW stock tanked is that subscriber growth dramatically decreased. Bringing that back may be just the Wall Street elixir they need. I'd love to see them implement digital access to more Time Warner properties. How about streaming/downloadable access to previous season episodes of the Sopranos, for example?
And if it is no additional charge for AOL members then it is $15 a month for you - the price of AOL's "Bring Your Own Access" plan.
That's not actually true. Despite having the Microsoft brands ("Word," "Excel," etc.) on the Pocket Office apps, the office suites for PalmOS are more compatible with MS Office on the desktop. It's a sore spot among the PocketPC faithful that the Pocket Office apps chew up some file formatting during "round-tripping" - synching a file, modifying it on the PPC, and sending it back to the desktop app.
Check out this PocketPCThoughts article for some schadenfreude.
And here's a comparison of PDA office suites at Brighthand.