Yes - Apple's site has a QuickTime of it (click the 'Try It' icon). But to do it justice you really do need to try it, see how it works with drag-n-drop, etc.
Hmm, Expose. Nice innovation. Nevermind the fact that X has had multiple desktops for years, and most window managers have a "clean up windows" command. And again, ignore the fact that Windows has a "tile all windows" command...Yea, Expose makes you work faster. The reality is that Expose is finally bringing a feature to the Mac OS that other people have enjoyed for many years. We just never had an ad campaign about it...Expose. BFD.
Anyone who posts this statement has not seen Expose. Or you are willfully ignorant.
Expose performs a vector transform on all your bitmap windows. It animates and scales them using nearest-neighbour interpolation (I'm sure Bicubic is coming in.. er, Ocelot?) and parks them in an arbitrary, non-overlapping arrangement on the screen. Do you get this?
Imagine a stack of photos on your desk hovering up 1 inch and flying out in a neat arrangement, then back again. 1 click.
Tile All Windows is a pale, pale shadow of this functionality.
One of the other perks I love about Expose is you can leave it turned 'on'... if I want to monitor a bunch of webcams, I don't have to laboriously arrange them, I click my thumb mouse button. All windows update live, including quicktimes and DVDs with virtually no lag. I could never go back.
...and I'll tell you, if this works anything like some of the municipal services, they're fscked! Prescott-Russell is a backwater. Half the places there are still on dialup, for starters. The road and water systems are a shambles. My ex is going to have to shell out an extra $2K this year to help upgrade everything. Never a cop in sight, so the kids in their damn rice-boy POS cars run rampant on the residential streets. Meanwhile, the little guy in his white pickup who enforces municipal bylaws seems everywhere, looking for those hapless individuals who run their lawn sprinklers on the wrong day, or have a hedge 6 inches too high. Shows where the priorities are. I think this election is going to be a farce!
Well, I do live in Toronto, and... what the fuck are you *on* about?
Your post is totally nonsensical. The streets are not 'a shambles'. We have one of the best Police forces in the world, and one of the lowest crime rates of any major city. I've never seen a rice burner in my neighbourhood, I don't know what 'little guy in a white pickup' you are referring to, and....NOW you are equating local by-laws to their Internet election experiment?
I take it back. You must be from Canada, because you must be very very high. I think your post is a farce. And I cannot believe it got modded up by anyone. It doesn't SAY anything!
It's widely known (and this was on Apple's own message boards) that the only iPods that are reliable and usable while jogging are the original 5GB models, the newer 10/15/20 GB models are not capable of playing without skips when you are jogging, not unless you take very careful measures in where and how you attach it to your body or hold it.
Huh. Don't know where you read that - certainly not my experience (2nd gen 10GB model). I've had it fall off the treadmill shelf and bang repeatedly against the frame for a few moments while running - no skips ever.
It's the holier-than-thou "you'll never understand it" attitude. I understand perfectly well. And eventually I got over it.
Ah. Gotcha. That's not really a Mac thing, that's just... a thing. You know, irritating people. I find Mac people tend to go the other way myself - more the 'I don't fucking care how it works as long as it does' camp. But I've seen both, and I see your point, I guess.
No seriously. It's probably very well done. But I haven't seen it yet. And I don't feel any less for not having seen it. That's my whole point. This isn't the second coming. Not interested. Keep it to yourself. Thanks.
Look, I can appreciate how thrilling it must be to all the nouveau-Appleians to finally have a computer that does what you want, but by now I've gotten fairly fed up with the non-stop gushing on Slashdot. It's gotten to the point that I'm waiting for the headline "Steve Jobs Takes Shit, Finds Gold Nugget".
That should be 'Steve Jobs Shits Pants, Finds Gold Nugget'
I agree with you in that the attitude towards Apple stuff in the recent months has changed dramatically.. its been a groundswell ever since OS X shipped. But I gotta ask: what's the problem?
So these guys love their new Macs. That's a common Mac thing; they love their computers. This is rare, you see. Most of the working world hates their computer. They love their computer no more than their pencil sharpner. So when you say this:
We've always chosen our computers based on our needs and interests of the moment, rather than going by some company or market diktat, and as a result our computers have always done pretty much what we want, seamlessly and flawlessly. Back in the day we have all had our love affairs with Sinclairs, Tandys, Macs, Acorns, Amigas, Ataris, BeBoxes -- until one day the man with the axe came and obliterated our dreams. So we moved on.
I call bitterness. Its very sad that your Amiga went bankrupt, your Atari vanished, your BeBox went kaput. I had an Amiga and a BeBox myself. But spare us the cynicism. What exactly is the problem? A bunch of guys on Slashdot love their new Macs and you have a problem. I say: get over it. We're nerds.
And BTW: we're talking about the new Napster vs. other services like iTunes. That is NOT something you've 'been doing all along' because these services are NEW.
He's totally right, there is a port of Windows Media DRM for OS X. It's on the new Radiohead album (Hail to the Thief).
I poked at it with some mild interest when I got the CD... then opened iTunes and my PowerBook played and ripped it without complaint. So yeah, it works fine.:)
I don't know anyone who's lost weight with Atkins. Mostly it makes people sick, and all the meat drives their cholesterol levels up. (Didn't know that, did you?)
That's not true, and there are thousands of people.
This post is not Insightful - you just offer a gross observation and then talk about your friend's complicated pregnancy. WTF.
The Atkins diet is really very convenient for hackers. All you have to do is order your standard pepperoni pizza, and then throw away everything below the pepperoni.
Heh.. that's not far off.. but for those of you who want to do Atkins and get stuck in awkward pizza-ordering social situations, I have two words for you:
chicken wings
Not breaded, not honey-garlic, but regular chicken wings will not 'knock you off' ketosis, and you can still eat with your pals.
A closer idea would be an Undocumented System Feature.
And it does work, I can attest myself.
The feature in question is a metabolic state called Ketosis, which burns body fat. You hold about 2 days worth of carbohydrates in your system; if you deprive yourself of sugars and carbs for that amount of time, then ketosis kicks in. Its often confused with ketoacidosis (SP?) which is a dangerous diabetic state.
Short-term (6 months or less) research shows that this method of weight loss is healthy, in that period of time. Triglycerides improve, and HDL cholesterol levels generally improve. Long-term effects have still not been researched to my knowledge, which is odd considering how old this approach is.
The first 'phase' of Atkins is usually a 2-week period, no more than 20 grams of carbs/day. You can safely do it for longer but it gets very boring. After 2 weeks they basically tell you to start adding carbs back, 5 grams a week, until you stop losing weight. Then you know how many carbs you can consume before the pounds start coming back. That's pretty much the whole Atkins approach.
So if you want to lost weight fast, its a pretty easy way to do it. I do agree that many of the beneficial effects of an Atkins diet are just linked to watching what you eat very carefully - to this I say, So What, it works. It's fairly easy to stick to as you get to eat all sorts of stuff you wouldn't normally: meat, cheese, nuts, etc. Also, the diet works a lot better for guys than girls - its basically twice as effective.
Where it gets controversial if you ask me is as a long-term approach. Even in the final phase of Atkins you are still probably only eating 60 grams of carbs/day, and that is with exercise... which is still way under what the FDA or whatever tells you is a normal daily intake.
In the end its an interesting dietary trick but probably not something you'd want to do for years until further studies have been done.
Someone posted this on Fark, I thought it was funny.
This is the scroll from that episode of the Simpsons, and the thing that Fox thinks will confuse their viewers. What they fail to realize is that this kind of viewer is already watching Fox.
pointless news crawls up 37 percent... do Democrats cause cancer? find out at FoxNews.com... Rupert Murdoch: terrific dancer... DOW down 5000 points... study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party... oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple... Dan Quayle:: Awesome... Ashcroft declares breast of chicken sandwich "OBSCENE"... Hillary Clinton embarrases self, Nation... Bible says Jesus favoured Capital-Gainss Cut... stay tuned for HANNITY AND IDIOT... only dorks watch CNN... Jimmy Carter: old, wrinkly, useless... Brad Pitt + Albert Einstein = Dick Cheney... risgt wing of chicken [cuts off here]
All over this thread, I keep seeing comments like:
But Apple's really going to have to get their sh1t together on this - or they'll never be taken seriously in the Enterprise.
WTF is it with you geeks and Star Trek? Listen carefully: IT'S NOT REAL, ITS JUST A SHOW. Why, the Starfleet or whatever would no more use Apple Computers on the Enterprise than any modern PC, the whole idea is abs--
Fun fact: the version of Panther that is shipped with the Mac OS X-Up To Date program does not permit a clean install - only update and archive and install are possible. Thanks, Apple...
Are you sure about that?
Archive and Install does the same thing as an old Clean Install, with the bonus of moving your home folder + network settings for you to the new system. Old system will be in a folder called 'previous system', I believe. It has a new name but it is essentially the same thing.
I agree with your post completely... with the exception of your comments about Archive and Install. This is not a head-up-ass move - it works really, really well, and is the equivalent of a clean install, without a lot of hassle. Look into it, you'll be surprised. (You do need some free room though.)
Personally I do not consider it 'advanced' to have to wipe my drive once a year, but to each his own.
This device is a "firewire device", yet it operates at slower than USB 1 speeds.... rant rant rant rant
Just chill out for a sec and listen.
Yes, the iPod,/i> is a FireWire device. The card-reader is NOT. The issue is not FireWire. It has nothing whatsoever to do with FireWire. It has to do with how Belkin has implemented this card-reading tech.
I mean, it sounds a tad slow to me too, but a 128MB card in 6 minutes.. on a portable device that has an 8-hour battery.. is not a big deal. It's still way more convenient than lugging around a laptop.
By the way, it sounds like you've got an axe to grind about FireWire though. I'll give you a bit of advice; its okay to hate a plug. The plug doesn't hate you. Move on to other plugs if you hate that one.
I say I'm right and you're wrong! What're you gonna do now? Check and mate, buddy.
Seriously, what is it you think I missed. They did tell him 'we don't like your posting and so we're firing you'. They are a huge Mac shop. So, please, what are you on about.
Chances are he signed paperwork saying that he couldn't disclose company secrets. He took the pic at work and posted it on the web, there are often policies about this. He let the world know what MS was up to.... No matter how much I like MS they did exactly what they should have done.
I agree with you completely, on a technical level.
There's probably no doubt the guy broke 'the rules' as its very, very easy to do. Almost everyone breaks one of the standard workplace 'rules' per day. Same with the law - I am a total criminal, I jaywalk multiple times a day, and I've run red lights before.
The difference is in the interpretation. Like the law, the spirit is supposed to be observed, not just the letter.
What I am saying is this: he broke the rules and he shouldn't have been fired. Yes it was a picture of a part of the MS campus, a loading dock. Yes, technically it was a security breach. Yes, it was against the rules. No, he should not have been fired. Why?
Because anyone can see he has not actually caused any damage to Microsoft. Nothing has happened. No one seriously thinks he has imperiled their development efforts, physical security, or anything else. Every one of these managers knows that the kid just screwed up, but they're going by the book and not with their brains.
If we don't cut each other some slack, and use some bloody judgment, we may as all submit to the Giant Corporate Shell Script that tells us when to take lunch, when to take a shit, when to make small talk with workers. Rules are there to be interpreted with wisdom and intelligence. That's the way I see it.
It is difficult to develop Mac applications without Mac boxes.
Exactly. And that's what MS should have said: we're the largest Mac development shop in the world, outside of Apple, and we need Macs to develop with.
But that's not what Microsoft said.
They told the guy point-blank 'we don't like what you posted, so you're fired'. That is an incredibly asinine move on their part - the only kind they know, these days - and I hope the PR burns them bad.
It was probably really the responsibility of an asshat manager, but MS is to blame. Give me a break! I worked as a temp at MS before and I talked shit about PCs all the time, brought my PowerBook to work, etc... didn't have any problems.
I realize the product isn't finished... and won't be for a long while (hint to/. editors)... but check out this comedy from the developer site.
It's a so-called 'guided tour of Longhorn', which consists of no actual imagery, but rather a gigantic step-list of things for you to click on in your Longhorn alpha, to make you go 'ooooh'.
Just brutal. I mean, if its really a 'bet-the-company' strategy, you'd think they'd splash out just a little cash for a Flash or non-ass-looking PPT prez... or even screenshots.... something other than this. Just looks really amateur.
Say what you will, this is one thing Apple clearly understands and Microsoft seems to have no fucking clue about. People want the buzz. Windows fans especially want the buzz so they know WTF they are waiting years for... and I realize its years away and not close to finished... but yet, people are out there toying with these alphas, so they should get on the ball and do a preview page like Apple did for Panther.
(People tell me all the time that Windows 'won' because of 'superior marketing'... I've never believed they were good marketeers.)
I think you have the right idea, regarding your comments about the spirit of copyright.. but look at this particular comment from the article, I think it sheds some light:
"It's almost an act of performance art," Mr. Zittrain said. Mr. Winstein, he said, has "arrayed the gerbils under the hood so it appears to meet the statutory requirement" - and has shown how badly the system of copyright needs sensible revamping.
My interpretation of this is that the system the MIT guys have developed is supposed to demonstrate that you can build a feasible, centralized, (somewhat) random-access music distribution system within the framework of existing law. You can do this using technical slight-of-hand and the particular legal circumstances regarding analog transmissions.
When people realize that you can have this almost-Napster legally, which provides a similar service, the point is to realize that the new laws are broken. There's a huge distinction, technically, between a P2P network and this project... however to an end-user the effect is much the same - you can dial up some music, when you want, from a big selection, somewhere else. So really - what's the point in making a distinction legally between analog and digital transmission rights, if you can accomplish much the same thing with either?
Maybe I'm off-base but that's what I got out of it.
By the way, when you say:
The evil RIAA and MPAA? Yes, they occasionally go overboard (the mickey mouse extension act is pretty egregious), but generally they are in the right.
In the right legally, perhaps. Morally and logically, not so much.
You can honestly point to Microsoft for the first mainstream implementation of this kind of task-switching, that's for certain. They probably got the idea from somewhere else, in a slightly different form, like many such things.
The salient points, I think, are:
- This feature was in Windows before.
- This feature was in Classic Mac OS before.
- This feature is blindingly obvious to most half-skilled computer users.
- Proteron made their money for a good period; LiteSwitch has not improved appreciably.
The tone of the 'open letter' is that of a whiny brat. Personally I don't sympathize with the guy at all.. and I am a huge advocate, and owner, of shareware. But the idea that Apple just lifeted his groundbreaking concept wholesale is just stupid.
This is much more cut-and-dried than the Sherlock situation (which frankly I also thought was an obvious idea). Apple cannot just 'stay away' from utility functions like this that turn out to be tremendously popular.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes - Apple's site has a QuickTime of it (click the 'Try It' icon). But to do it justice you really do need to try it, see how it works with drag-n-drop, etc.
Anyone who posts this statement has not seen Expose. Or you are willfully ignorant.
Expose performs a vector transform on all your bitmap windows. It animates and scales them using nearest-neighbour interpolation (I'm sure Bicubic is coming in.. er, Ocelot?) and parks them in an arbitrary, non-overlapping arrangement on the screen. Do you get this?
Imagine a stack of photos on your desk hovering up 1 inch and flying out in a neat arrangement, then back again. 1 click.
Tile All Windows is a pale, pale shadow of this functionality.
One of the other perks I love about Expose is you can leave it turned 'on'... if I want to monitor a bunch of webcams, I don't have to laboriously arrange them, I click my thumb mouse button. All windows update live, including quicktimes and DVDs with virtually no lag. I could never go back.
Well, I do live in Toronto, and... what the fuck are you *on* about?
Your post is totally nonsensical. The streets are not 'a shambles'. We have one of the best Police forces in the world, and one of the lowest crime rates of any major city. I've never seen a rice burner in my neighbourhood, I don't know what 'little guy in a white pickup' you are referring to, and ....NOW you are equating local by-laws to their Internet election experiment?
I take it back. You must be from Canada, because you must be very very high. I think your post is a farce. And I cannot believe it got modded up by anyone. It doesn't SAY anything!
Huh. Don't know where you read that - certainly not my experience (2nd gen 10GB model). I've had it fall off the treadmill shelf and bang repeatedly against the frame for a few moments while running - no skips ever.
Ah. Gotcha. That's not really a Mac thing, that's just... a thing. You know, irritating people. I find Mac people tend to go the other way myself - more the 'I don't fucking care how it works as long as it does' camp. But I've seen both, and I see your point, I guess. No seriously. It's probably very well done. But I haven't seen it yet. And I don't feel any less for not having seen it. That's my whole point. This isn't the second coming. Not interested. Keep it to yourself. Thanks.
Heh... I will. Thanks.
That should be 'Steve Jobs Shits Pants, Finds Gold Nugget'
I agree with you in that the attitude towards Apple stuff in the recent months has changed dramatically.. its been a groundswell ever since OS X shipped. But I gotta ask: what's the problem?
So these guys love their new Macs. That's a common Mac thing; they love their computers. This is rare, you see. Most of the working world hates their computer. They love their computer no more than their pencil sharpner. So when you say this:
We've always chosen our computers based on our needs and interests of the moment, rather than going by some company or market diktat, and as a result our computers have always done pretty much what we want, seamlessly and flawlessly. Back in the day we have all had our love affairs with Sinclairs, Tandys, Macs, Acorns, Amigas, Ataris, BeBoxes -- until one day the man with the axe came and obliterated our dreams. So we moved on.
I call bitterness. Its very sad that your Amiga went bankrupt, your Atari vanished, your BeBox went kaput. I had an Amiga and a BeBox myself. But spare us the cynicism. What exactly is the problem? A bunch of guys on Slashdot love their new Macs and you have a problem. I say: get over it. We're nerds.
And BTW: we're talking about the new Napster vs. other services like iTunes. That is NOT something you've 'been doing all along' because these services are NEW.
I poked at it with some mild interest when I got the CD... then opened iTunes and my PowerBook played and ripped it without complaint. So yeah, it works fine. :)
That's not true, and there are thousands of people.
This post is not Insightful - you just offer a gross observation and then talk about your friend's complicated pregnancy. WTF.
No. That is the hardest diet ever.
As Steve Martin once quipped, "I'd do anything to look beautiful - except eat right and exercise more."
Heh.. that's not far off.. but for those of you who want to do Atkins and get stuck in awkward pizza-ordering social situations, I have two words for you:
chicken wings
Not breaded, not honey-garlic, but regular chicken wings will not 'knock you off' ketosis, and you can still eat with your pals.
And it does work, I can attest myself.
The feature in question is a metabolic state called Ketosis, which burns body fat. You hold about 2 days worth of carbohydrates in your system; if you deprive yourself of sugars and carbs for that amount of time, then ketosis kicks in. Its often confused with ketoacidosis (SP?) which is a dangerous diabetic state.
Short-term (6 months or less) research shows that this method of weight loss is healthy, in that period of time. Triglycerides improve, and HDL cholesterol levels generally improve. Long-term effects have still not been researched to my knowledge, which is odd considering how old this approach is.
The first 'phase' of Atkins is usually a 2-week period, no more than 20 grams of carbs/day. You can safely do it for longer but it gets very boring. After 2 weeks they basically tell you to start adding carbs back, 5 grams a week, until you stop losing weight. Then you know how many carbs you can consume before the pounds start coming back. That's pretty much the whole Atkins approach.
So if you want to lost weight fast, its a pretty easy way to do it. I do agree that many of the beneficial effects of an Atkins diet are just linked to watching what you eat very carefully - to this I say, So What, it works. It's fairly easy to stick to as you get to eat all sorts of stuff you wouldn't normally: meat, cheese, nuts, etc. Also, the diet works a lot better for guys than girls - its basically twice as effective.
Where it gets controversial if you ask me is as a long-term approach. Even in the final phase of Atkins you are still probably only eating 60 grams of carbs/day, and that is with exercise... which is still way under what the FDA or whatever tells you is a normal daily intake.
In the end its an interesting dietary trick but probably not something you'd want to do for years until further studies have been done.
This is the scroll from that episode of the Simpsons, and the thing that Fox thinks will confuse their viewers. What they fail to realize is that this kind of viewer is already watching Fox.
pointless news crawls up 37 percent ... do Democrats cause cancer? find out at FoxNews.com ... Rupert Murdoch: terrific dancer ... DOW down 5000 points ... study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay ... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party ... oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple ... Dan Quayle:: Awesome ... Ashcroft declares breast of chicken sandwich "OBSCENE" ... Hillary Clinton embarrases self, Nation ... Bible says Jesus favoured Capital-Gainss Cut ... stay tuned for HANNITY AND IDIOT ... only dorks watch CNN ... Jimmy Carter: old, wrinkly, useless ... Brad Pitt + Albert Einstein = Dick Cheney ... risgt wing of chicken [cuts off here]
But Apple's really going to have to get their sh1t together on this - or they'll never be taken seriously in the Enterprise.
WTF is it with you geeks and Star Trek? Listen carefully: IT'S NOT REAL, ITS JUST A SHOW. Why, the Starfleet or whatever would no more use Apple Computers on the Enterprise than any modern PC, the whole idea is abs--
MAN TAPS NARRATOR ON SHOULDER, WHISPERS URGENTLY
Er, carry on.
Are you sure about that?
Archive and Install does the same thing as an old Clean Install, with the bonus of moving your home folder + network settings for you to the new system. Old system will be in a folder called 'previous system', I believe. It has a new name but it is essentially the same thing.
Personally I do not consider it 'advanced' to have to wipe my drive once a year, but to each his own.
Just chill out for a sec and listen.
Yes, the iPod,/i> is a FireWire device. The card-reader is NOT. The issue is not FireWire. It has nothing whatsoever to do with FireWire. It has to do with how Belkin has implemented this card-reading tech.
I mean, it sounds a tad slow to me too, but a 128MB card in 6 minutes.. on a portable device that has an 8-hour battery.. is not a big deal. It's still way more convenient than lugging around a laptop.
By the way, it sounds like you've got an axe to grind about FireWire though. I'll give you a bit of advice; its okay to hate a plug. The plug doesn't hate you. Move on to other plugs if you hate that one.
Seriously, what is it you think I missed. They did tell him 'we don't like your posting and so we're firing you'. They are a huge Mac shop. So, please, what are you on about.
Here is my response to your point.
I agree with you completely, on a technical level.
There's probably no doubt the guy broke 'the rules' as its very, very easy to do. Almost everyone breaks one of the standard workplace 'rules' per day. Same with the law - I am a total criminal, I jaywalk multiple times a day, and I've run red lights before.
The difference is in the interpretation. Like the law, the spirit is supposed to be observed, not just the letter.
What I am saying is this: he broke the rules and he shouldn't have been fired. Yes it was a picture of a part of the MS campus, a loading dock. Yes, technically it was a security breach. Yes, it was against the rules. No, he should not have been fired. Why?
Because anyone can see he has not actually caused any damage to Microsoft. Nothing has happened. No one seriously thinks he has imperiled their development efforts, physical security, or anything else. Every one of these managers knows that the kid just screwed up, but they're going by the book and not with their brains.
If we don't cut each other some slack, and use some bloody judgment, we may as all submit to the Giant Corporate Shell Script that tells us when to take lunch, when to take a shit, when to make small talk with workers. Rules are there to be interpreted with wisdom and intelligence. That's the way I see it.
Exactly. And that's what MS should have said: we're the largest Mac development shop in the world, outside of Apple, and we need Macs to develop with.
But that's not what Microsoft said.
They told the guy point-blank 'we don't like what you posted, so you're fired'. That is an incredibly asinine move on their part - the only kind they know, these days - and I hope the PR burns them bad.
It was probably really the responsibility of an asshat manager, but MS is to blame. Give me a break! I worked as a temp at MS before and I talked shit about PCs all the time, brought my PowerBook to work, etc... didn't have any problems.
It's a so-called 'guided tour of Longhorn', which consists of no actual imagery, but rather a gigantic step-list of things for you to click on in your Longhorn alpha, to make you go 'ooooh'.
Just brutal. I mean, if its really a 'bet-the-company' strategy, you'd think they'd splash out just a little cash for a Flash or non-ass-looking PPT prez... or even screenshots.... something other than this. Just looks really amateur.
Say what you will, this is one thing Apple clearly understands and Microsoft seems to have no fucking clue about. People want the buzz. Windows fans especially want the buzz so they know WTF they are waiting years for... and I realize its years away and not close to finished... but yet, people are out there toying with these alphas, so they should get on the ball and do a preview page like Apple did for Panther.
(People tell me all the time that Windows 'won' because of 'superior marketing'... I've never believed they were good marketeers.)
"It's almost an act of performance art," Mr. Zittrain said. Mr. Winstein, he said, has "arrayed the gerbils under the hood so it appears to meet the statutory requirement" - and has shown how badly the system of copyright needs sensible revamping.
My interpretation of this is that the system the MIT guys have developed is supposed to demonstrate that you can build a feasible, centralized, (somewhat) random-access music distribution system within the framework of existing law. You can do this using technical slight-of-hand and the particular legal circumstances regarding analog transmissions.
When people realize that you can have this almost-Napster legally, which provides a similar service, the point is to realize that the new laws are broken. There's a huge distinction, technically, between a P2P network and this project... however to an end-user the effect is much the same - you can dial up some music, when you want, from a big selection, somewhere else. So really - what's the point in making a distinction legally between analog and digital transmission rights, if you can accomplish much the same thing with either?
Maybe I'm off-base but that's what I got out of it.
By the way, when you say:
The evil RIAA and MPAA? Yes, they occasionally go overboard (the mickey mouse extension act is pretty egregious), but generally they are in the right.
In the right legally, perhaps. Morally and logically, not so much.
Dude, Microsoft leads the field in innovation. Why, pop-up blocking will be available built into Windows in a mere 2.5 years.
You can honestly point to Microsoft for the first mainstream implementation of this kind of task-switching, that's for certain. They probably got the idea from somewhere else, in a slightly different form, like many such things.
The salient points, I think, are:
- This feature was in Windows before.
- This feature was in Classic Mac OS before.
- This feature is blindingly obvious to most half-skilled computer users.
- Proteron made their money for a good period; LiteSwitch has not improved appreciably.
The tone of the 'open letter' is that of a whiny brat. Personally I don't sympathize with the guy at all.. and I am a huge advocate, and owner, of shareware. But the idea that Apple just lifeted his groundbreaking concept wholesale is just stupid.
This is much more cut-and-dried than the Sherlock situation (which frankly I also thought was an obvious idea). Apple cannot just 'stay away' from utility functions like this that turn out to be tremendously popular.
I have to thank you for that link. That is spectacularly awful.