Actually, for the end-user even more so. My mother was very, very happy with Afterstep. It is a quantum leap easier for her than windos. And yes, she tried windos, she disliked it.
See, the point is that the end-user can not tailor the system to his or her needs, but they can have it tailored and very specifically so.
I absolutely agree that in cases where a techie can be available to support it and customize it personally, it's better in most ways that anything the MS world has to offer. However, most people aren't in that position (at least, I would assume not: obviously most people I know well are in that position, as I'm there), and for them, having a relatively standard GUI layout would be a godsend to Linux on the desktop.
Now, I'm not saying that there should be a single GUI with no changes between machines: themes are great, and a theme someone likes can make them much happier with their system. All I'm worried about is locations and names of common buttons, windows, widgets, etc. That way, when the poor user calls tech support complaining that something doesn't work, the tech support person can walk them through steps without having to say "Well, the button is supposed to be labeled 'OK', and it should be in the bottom-right corner, but it might be in the bottom-left and called 'Aye, sir!'".... (Yeah, that's a bit extreme; I'm just trying to illustrate the point;-) )
I'd be as happy as anyone to see Linux take huge chunks of Windows's desktop share. However, I do think that some real standardization is necessary in Linux to reach the average user who doesn't have technically inclined friends and relatives. Personally, I think that Mac OS X has the best of all worlds, but I'll admit I'm somewhat biased there.
Well, let's see: Mt. St. Helens is only a problem in a small part of Washington State. Tornadoes, well, yeah, that takes out most of the Midwest, and hurricanes can hit FL, AL, GA, LA, SC, NC and MS pretty darn hard. You didn't mention the following, but: earthquakes are only a serious problem (to my knowledge) in western California. The potential tidal wave is only a problem for a few miles inland on the East Coast.
That still leaves the Rockies, the Appalachians, right around the Great Lakes, and, my personal favourite, the inland Northeast, at the very least.
For geeks like you and me, sure. But not to ordinary folks who just want to use it--especially not when they need tech support. They don't need extra questions like, "Are you using KDE or Gnome?" Half the time, they don't even know they're using Windows vs. Linux vs. MacOS. Having a single, standardized GUI can help a LOT.
Linux has gone one way with this--diversity--and MacOS has gone the other--standardization. In my mind, what is needed is the happy medium: customizability--even if it's hidden away behind an "Advanced..." button on one of the control panels or preference panes. This avoids both traps: including too much choice, which is unnecessarily confusing to the normal users, while still allowing people who want to change things to suit themselves to do so.
When your GUI breaks on windos, OS X or any other GUI-only system, you're fucked.
Beg pardon, but Mac OS X has a CLI much like Linux (or, more closely, *BSD). Granted, if you truly have no GUI interaction going on, you have to SSH in, but it is there, and just as functional. I've used it to rescue a locked box many times.
I always loved Route 66--it was one of the few maps that really worked well with the 3-5 people that were all I could ever get together with for LAN play. It was also the only "official" map with multiple versions--one for poor, crippled computers like I could get access to, and one for PPC 604s and better, with the extra shadows and such.
Ah, those were the days. They really don't make them like that anymore.
Well, I don't know where that was, but my father has taught at a liberal arts college in the Northeast for nearly 20 years now, and had tenure for most of that time, and he barely makes $60K. So professor certainly isn't always a job you want to get into for the money...
If there is a 10% chance of it being true and it's going to cost a trillion dollars worldwide to fix the problem then we had better be avoiding at least $10 trillion worth of damage.
You don't get it, do you?
There is no "fixing" what will happen if the worst happens, no matter how much money you throw at it. The sea will rise high enough to drown most coastal cities, including NYC, probably Washington DC, probably London, an awful lot of Japan....are you starting to get the picture? At the very least, this will cause massive social upheaval as hundreds of millions of people have to move further inland--or, in the cases of places like Japan, simply emigrate. More likely, millions of people will die.
And I don't really see how application of even all the world's money will solve the resulting chaos and destruction as land becomes much more valuable, and people seek to claim it by any means necessary. At the worst case, we could literally be talking the end of civilization as we know it--and the rise of whoever can grab most land fastest. Naturally, that is worst case, and not terribly likely.
But you can't talk about this problem in terms of cost. It doesn't matter how much it costs to fix it before it happens, because the cost of not fixing it is, effectively, infinite.
...and the police show up at Hertz and ask for the records of who had rented that car during the period in question, would Hertz be perfectly justified in telling the police, "Get bent, we don't have time to waste looking up that info just so you can catch your bank robber."?
It's the same thing.
No--it would be (at least sort of) the same thing if a representative from a large group of banks showed up and demanded that Hertz give their records.
If the police want to monitor the network, that's one thing. The MPAA is not yet an officially recognized branch of law enforcement, much as they'd like you to believe they are (and like to be one!).
First--you're making the far-too-common mistake of equating "market share" with "installed base". They're not the same. Market share means what percent of computers being sold are Macs. Installed base means what percent of computers being used are Macs. The latter number is much higher than the former. This is largely because Macs last longer than PCs.
Second, perhaps you should think about just what "sheep" means. It means following the majority opinion without thinking for yourself. Your answer sounds very much like the majority opinion--speaking of a 1% marketshare, when most unbiased estimates put it at at least 3 to 4 times that, saying that raising marketshare is the only way to "save" Apple--and most importantly, thinking that a low marketshare means that Apple needs to be saved.
His first 4 recommendations are basically to be like everyone else:
Make Macs low-margin
Make them "cheap chic" (see #1)
No more all-in-one
Sell high-volume, low-price (see #1)
So basically, he's another of those people who thinks that, of course, Steve must be trying to maximize his market share at the expense of everything else! And, of course, the best way to do that is to make Macs cheap, like Dells. Because Dell sells a lot of units!....Which is true. But it's not the point.
Apple's purpose is not to maximize marketshare but to maximize money. They do that by selling with high margins. Removing the high margins would make Apple unable to function, basically. They are not another assemble and resell outfit. They are not another Dell.
Why do so few people realize that?
As for making a headless "iMac," first, that wouldn't be an iMac, and second, that's not what Apple needs. They have a whole bunch of headless machines--what the heck do you think a PowerMac is??? And if I'm not mistaken, the PowerMacs come with iLife installed. So....he wants them to make a PowerMac. Yay! They're already doing that!
Why do people keep insisting that the way for Apple to dominate the market is to become another low-margin box-assembler? They're doing just fine the way they are. They're not in any trouble. Their stock price is higher than it's been in years--granted, it was higher a couple of weeks ago, but it always rises before and tanks after a major show.
My six steps for Apple?
Come out with something really cool for the new iMac
Great story; too bad most people in the US here wouldn't even know what a roundabout was if you called it by its American names, "rotary" and "traffic circle." There are very few of them over here, and there are many places where they would be incredibly useful.
Near where I live, there are 2 ridiculously complex intersections, 1 where at least 4 separate roads intersect, one of which is two lanes on each side at that point, and another where a truly dizzying number of roads intersect, merge, and split in very confusing ways--all of which have at least 2 lanes on each side. The second one has been redesigned at least twice in the last 20 years because there were too many accidents there.
It seems to me that replacing these with roundabouts would be an excellent solution...except for the little detail that all these Americans wouldn't know how to deal with it for the first 6 months or so, increasing the accident rate dramatically during that time. Once they learned how to use the darn thing, though, I strongly suspect that the accident rate would drop considerably.
Um...couple of problems with your argument here, methinks.
First off, Netscape didn't have nearly the name recognition that Apple, the iPod, and iTunes do. By the time M$ has something that might be able to compete, featurewise, The People will probably know iTunes as the best music store, and want it rather than whatever M$ preinstalls/bundles/force-feeds/whatever.
Secondly, I wouldn't use the XBox as a comparison. It's not dying, but it's hardly whipping the competition. If there were as many XBoxes as PS2s out there, I'd agree with you, but the XBox just isn't successful enough to be used as an example for this strategy.
Uh, that (the "undiscovered country") is a reference to death, you know...
No, you dope, it's a reference to the FUTURE.
I mean, I have no problem with you having not watched ST:VI in general, but if you're going to make snide comments that reference it, you really should try to know what the heck you're talking about.
This weapon is perfect for a dictatorship wanting to keep its people in line.
Well, not that I'm particularly disagreeing with you, but that's true of most weapons--there are ways to use them for good, and ways to use them for evil.
Personally, I think that this can be a much more humane method of breaking up protests gone violent than tear gas or rubber bullets. Note that this is all assuming that the protestors have gone beyond civil disobedience into violence. So long as it is, indeed, nonlethal, it won't (obviously) kill anyone--which tear gas can do if you inhale too much of it or if you have a nasty reaction to it, and rubber bullets can do if they hit in the wrong places--or even leave scars or bruises. Using this could help keep violence down more, too, as you wouldn't have to send out policemen, who could be shot at (if anyone in the mob had a gun), just turn the devices on. It could also be useful to keep protestors outside a certain area--for instance, keep a buffer zone around the embassy or whatever that if they come inside it, they get a nasty shock.
I can certainly see how it could be dangerous in the hands of a despot, but so can guns and tear gas. If they want to stop protests, they're going to do it, and if they use this rather than "policemen" armed with machine guns, it could save lives. If this device can decrease injuries and deaths in protests, of which there are not huge numbers, but some, it sounds like a good thing in my book.
In the end, it is a tool, whose purpose is only determined by the person using it. It's not even one designed to kill, only to hurt, and therefore keep someone away.
Heh, it all depends on your definition of "creativity," doesn't it? To us, it might mean, "being able to come up with new, interesting, original concepts and mechanics that make games more fun than the games that came before," or something like that. To the publishers, however, I'm pretty sure "creativity" means "being able to make a game that makes us lots and lots and lots and lots of money."
"Screw the customers" attitude (That's right, SquareEnix, I'm talking to you, bitches)
Out of curiosity, where do you see this attitude from Square Enix? Everything I've seen from them lately has been relatively customer-friendly...though I'll freely admit I've only paid attention to the offline Final Fantasies. (which, by the way, I'm quite fond of, so if it's just the fact of Final Fantasy in general that irks you, you'll not find a sympathetic ear here;-P)
The best I can guess is that you're commenting on my.Mac email address, and thus implying that I'm one of the people I talk about. I happen not to be; I buy Macs because I like them, and can't stand Microsoft in general and Windows in particular.
It was because the person you replied to said you were arguing by extrapolating from yourself to the world, and you said, "No, I'm not," and then proceeded to say what you were doing, which, to anyone who is not completely self-centered, would quite clearly be an example of extrapolating from yourself to the world.
Oh, and your sig seriously ticked me off...but I didn't actually read it until after I had written the reply, and was thinking about whether I actually wanted to post it or not. It seemed almost like a challenge.
A lot of Mac users assume that everyone else also uses a Mac, primarily because they, personally, have never used anything else.
Is this from personal experience? Because everything I've seen points to the opposite. (I'm not calling you a liar, I'm genuinely curious if you know people like that)
What I've seen is that many people who use Windows assume--well, it can't even be called assuming everyone else uses Windows, because they don't even know there's anything else. In fact, some don't even know there's something called Windows--it's just The Computer. If you asked them what operating system they ran, they might say something like "Word" or "PowerPoint."
I'm not claiming that it's universal, or even statistically significant, but in my experience, casual Mac users are more generally computer-literate, on average, than casual Windows users. That's "casual" as in "not geeks or even close"--people who just want the computer to do what they tell it to. And I certainly don't know if it's correlation or causation, and if causation, which way around it goes--if they, being a bit more educated about computers, choose to buy Macs, or if, having gotten a Mac, it's easier to figure out how to do more stuff without breaking the darn thing.
Of course, the one true rule of computers and statistics can basically be summed up as "YMMV". I'm a very happy Mac user, but a bit disgruntled currently because my TiBook's hinge is broken, and it would cost nearly $700 for Apple to fix it...but I'd recommend a Mac to anyone and everyone, unless they absolutely needed specific software that was Windows-only.
Dan Aris
PS. Just thought of something I thought I should add, in the interests of accuracy: many, if not most, of the casual Mac users I know are college professors and staff/administration, so they have, at least theoretically, a higher level of general education to begin with.
"And your argument seems to be "*I* wouldn't do that, so nobody would."
No, it is not. My argument is that people don't base decisions as to whether to buy hardware that costs over $1000 on just seeing it at their neighbor's house.
No, your argument is that YOU wouldn't base such decisions on such events, and are extrapolating that to other people. Well, here's a news flash for you, ego-boy:
NOT EVERYBODY THINKS LIKE YOU!!!
Do you get it yet? There really, truly, are people who would go out and buy a $2000+ G5 because they saw their friends using it and thought it looked snazzy. You're clearly not one of them, and you may not even know any of them, but they do exist! Plenty of people in this world base decisions on things other than cold, hard, numbers, things like cool looks, friends' words, and even just plain impulse.
So why don't you step out of your basement (or bathroom, as the case may be...) and take a look at the real world every once in a while? You might meet some people who (*gasp*) have opinions other than your own (and my own, and those of anyone else on Slashdot). It will be good for you.
Oh, right; that's true. However, it was not introduced until 10.2.8, which might (not sure about this) have been released after Panther was released. It was certainly released after WWDC 2003, when Panther was announced.
So there was no support for it before Panther, but there is support for it in pre-Panther versions. My nits stand picked;-)
That's not quite correct. In Panther (Mac OS X 10.3, for the uninitiated), journaling is enabled by default: that is, when you first install Panther, it will add journaling to your existing HFS+ disk, and if you're reformatting, it will default to HFS+ (Journaled). However, prior to Panther, there was no journaling support in HFS+, to my knowledge.
Not actually for the N64, as I recall, but for SGI machines. You can download three clips from it, as well as get a bit of other info, at RPGamer's site.
As it is, everyone who matters can see how ridiculous that is.
Do you really think so? Because I don't. I doubt that many PHBs looking at this report would say, "Oh, that's a lot of balderdash," or whatever. They'd look at it, see that it came from a (supposedly) reputable institution, and believe every word. Because most of them don't know much about Linux, or the roots of the modern technopolitical climate.
I suspect that any ordinary mortal reading it would be similar. They'd say, "Oh, so this guy who has been claiming to have invented Linux all along has been lying? And he actually stole it from someone else? I guess I probably shouldn't use it, if it's stolen..." or something like that.
Regardless of their immediate reaction, I strongly suspect that it would have the desired effect upon those who don't frequent sites like Slashdot: the effect of sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Thus making people want to stick with what they know, which, in the vast majority of cases, is Windows--and in the cases of PHBs, that can mean that no one under their control is allowed to use anything else.
So do you still think we're the only ones who "matter"?
Unfortunately, they won't fix my 8-month-old TiBook with AppleCare and broken hinges.
The problem is, of course, that it wasn't a "defect" that caused them to break. It was...well, I don't know what it was. I jump up, 'cause I hear a bunch of stuff fall down in the next room, I try to put my computer down on the little table...and my aim is a fraction of an inch off, so it hits on its corner, rather than landing on its base. The screen bends backwards.
It's still a perfectly usable computer, it just needs its screen propped up on something. And to fix it would cost nearly $700.
I'm considering giving it to my fiancee in a few months when we get married, and getting myself a newer AlBook. And being a little more careful with it this time.:-/
So don't forget, AppleCare only covers things that break by themselves. I know, it's the standard way to do warranties, but it's still really annoying.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, for the end-user even more so. My mother was very, very happy with Afterstep. It is a quantum leap easier for her than windos. And yes, she tried windos, she disliked it.
See, the point is that the end-user can not tailor the system to his or her needs, but they can have it tailored and very specifically so.
I absolutely agree that in cases where a techie can be available to support it and customize it personally, it's better in most ways that anything the MS world has to offer. However, most people aren't in that position (at least, I would assume not: obviously most people I know well are in that position, as I'm there), and for them, having a relatively standard GUI layout would be a godsend to Linux on the desktop.
Now, I'm not saying that there should be a single GUI with no changes between machines: themes are great, and a theme someone likes can make them much happier with their system. All I'm worried about is locations and names of common buttons, windows, widgets, etc. That way, when the poor user calls tech support complaining that something doesn't work, the tech support person can walk them through steps without having to say "Well, the button is supposed to be labeled 'OK', and it should be in the bottom-right corner, but it might be in the bottom-left and called 'Aye, sir!'".... (Yeah, that's a bit extreme; I'm just trying to illustrate the point ;-) )
I'd be as happy as anyone to see Linux take huge chunks of Windows's desktop share. However, I do think that some real standardization is necessary in Linux to reach the average user who doesn't have technically inclined friends and relatives. Personally, I think that Mac OS X has the best of all worlds, but I'll admit I'm somewhat biased there.
Dan Aris
Well, let's see: Mt. St. Helens is only a problem in a small part of Washington State. Tornadoes, well, yeah, that takes out most of the Midwest, and hurricanes can hit FL, AL, GA, LA, SC, NC and MS pretty darn hard. You didn't mention the following, but: earthquakes are only a serious problem (to my knowledge) in western California. The potential tidal wave is only a problem for a few miles inland on the East Coast.
That still leaves the Rockies, the Appalachians, right around the Great Lakes, and, my personal favourite, the inland Northeast, at the very least.
Man, I'd hate to be as pessimistic as you.
Dan Aris
Which is a huge advantage.
For geeks like you and me, sure. But not to ordinary folks who just want to use it--especially not when they need tech support. They don't need extra questions like, "Are you using KDE or Gnome?" Half the time, they don't even know they're using Windows vs. Linux vs. MacOS. Having a single, standardized GUI can help a LOT.
Linux has gone one way with this--diversity--and MacOS has gone the other--standardization. In my mind, what is needed is the happy medium: customizability--even if it's hidden away behind an "Advanced..." button on one of the control panels or preference panes. This avoids both traps: including too much choice, which is unnecessarily confusing to the normal users, while still allowing people who want to change things to suit themselves to do so.
When your GUI breaks on windos, OS X or any other GUI-only system, you're fucked.
Beg pardon, but Mac OS X has a CLI much like Linux (or, more closely, *BSD). Granted, if you truly have no GUI interaction going on, you have to SSH in, but it is there, and just as functional. I've used it to rescue a locked box many times.
Dan Aris
Good to see you here, ydnar.
I always loved Route 66--it was one of the few maps that really worked well with the 3-5 people that were all I could ever get together with for LAN play. It was also the only "official" map with multiple versions--one for poor, crippled computers like I could get access to, and one for PPC 604s and better, with the extra shadows and such.
Ah, those were the days. They really don't make them like that anymore.
Dan Aris
Well, I don't know where that was, but my father has taught at a liberal arts college in the Northeast for nearly 20 years now, and had tenure for most of that time, and he barely makes $60K. So professor certainly isn't always a job you want to get into for the money...
Dan Aris
If there is a 10% chance of it being true and it's going to cost a trillion dollars worldwide to fix the problem then we had better be avoiding at least $10 trillion worth of damage.
You don't get it, do you?
There is no "fixing" what will happen if the worst happens, no matter how much money you throw at it. The sea will rise high enough to drown most coastal cities, including NYC, probably Washington DC, probably London, an awful lot of Japan....are you starting to get the picture? At the very least, this will cause massive social upheaval as hundreds of millions of people have to move further inland--or, in the cases of places like Japan, simply emigrate. More likely, millions of people will die.
And I don't really see how application of even all the world's money will solve the resulting chaos and destruction as land becomes much more valuable, and people seek to claim it by any means necessary. At the worst case, we could literally be talking the end of civilization as we know it--and the rise of whoever can grab most land fastest. Naturally, that is worst case, and not terribly likely.
But you can't talk about this problem in terms of cost. It doesn't matter how much it costs to fix it before it happens, because the cost of not fixing it is, effectively, infinite.
Dan Aris
It's the same thing.
No--it would be (at least sort of) the same thing if a representative from a large group of banks showed up and demanded that Hertz give their records.
If the police want to monitor the network, that's one thing. The MPAA is not yet an officially recognized branch of law enforcement, much as they'd like you to believe they are (and like to be one!).
Dan Aris
First--you're making the far-too-common mistake of equating "market share" with "installed base". They're not the same. Market share means what percent of computers being sold are Macs. Installed base means what percent of computers being used are Macs. The latter number is much higher than the former. This is largely because Macs last longer than PCs.
Second, perhaps you should think about just what "sheep" means. It means following the majority opinion without thinking for yourself. Your answer sounds very much like the majority opinion--speaking of a 1% marketshare, when most unbiased estimates put it at at least 3 to 4 times that, saying that raising marketshare is the only way to "save" Apple--and most importantly, thinking that a low marketshare means that Apple needs to be saved.
Here's a hint: it doesn't.
Apple's doing just fine.
Dan Aris
His first 4 recommendations are basically to be like everyone else:
So basically, he's another of those people who thinks that, of course, Steve must be trying to maximize his market share at the expense of everything else! And, of course, the best way to do that is to make Macs cheap, like Dells. Because Dell sells a lot of units! ....Which is true. But it's not the point.
Apple's purpose is not to maximize marketshare but to maximize money. They do that by selling with high margins. Removing the high margins would make Apple unable to function, basically. They are not another assemble and resell outfit. They are not another Dell.
Why do so few people realize that?
As for making a headless "iMac," first, that wouldn't be an iMac, and second, that's not what Apple needs. They have a whole bunch of headless machines--what the heck do you think a PowerMac is??? And if I'm not mistaken, the PowerMacs come with iLife installed. So....he wants them to make a PowerMac. Yay! They're already doing that!
Why do people keep insisting that the way for Apple to dominate the market is to become another low-margin box-assembler? They're doing just fine the way they are. They're not in any trouble. Their stock price is higher than it's been in years--granted, it was higher a couple of weeks ago, but it always rises before and tanks after a major show.
My six steps for Apple?
Dan Aris
Great story; too bad most people in the US here wouldn't even know what a roundabout was if you called it by its American names, "rotary" and "traffic circle." There are very few of them over here, and there are many places where they would be incredibly useful.
Near where I live, there are 2 ridiculously complex intersections, 1 where at least 4 separate roads intersect, one of which is two lanes on each side at that point, and another where a truly dizzying number of roads intersect, merge, and split in very confusing ways--all of which have at least 2 lanes on each side. The second one has been redesigned at least twice in the last 20 years because there were too many accidents there.
It seems to me that replacing these with roundabouts would be an excellent solution...except for the little detail that all these Americans wouldn't know how to deal with it for the first 6 months or so, increasing the accident rate dramatically during that time. Once they learned how to use the darn thing, though, I strongly suspect that the accident rate would drop considerably.
Dan Aris
Um...couple of problems with your argument here, methinks.
First off, Netscape didn't have nearly the name recognition that Apple, the iPod, and iTunes do. By the time M$ has something that might be able to compete, featurewise, The People will probably know iTunes as the best music store, and want it rather than whatever M$ preinstalls/bundles/force-feeds/whatever.
Secondly, I wouldn't use the XBox as a comparison. It's not dying, but it's hardly whipping the competition. If there were as many XBoxes as PS2s out there, I'd agree with you, but the XBox just isn't successful enough to be used as an example for this strategy.
Dan Aris
Ah, in that case I apologize.
However, in the context, I think the Star Trek reference is much more likely to be the one being, well, referenced.
Dan Aris
Uh, that (the "undiscovered country") is a reference to death, you know ...
No, you dope, it's a reference to the FUTURE.
I mean, I have no problem with you having not watched ST:VI in general, but if you're going to make snide comments that reference it, you really should try to know what the heck you're talking about.
Dan Aris
This weapon is perfect for a dictatorship wanting to keep its people in line.
Well, not that I'm particularly disagreeing with you, but that's true of most weapons--there are ways to use them for good, and ways to use them for evil.
Personally, I think that this can be a much more humane method of breaking up protests gone violent than tear gas or rubber bullets. Note that this is all assuming that the protestors have gone beyond civil disobedience into violence. So long as it is, indeed, nonlethal, it won't (obviously) kill anyone--which tear gas can do if you inhale too much of it or if you have a nasty reaction to it, and rubber bullets can do if they hit in the wrong places--or even leave scars or bruises. Using this could help keep violence down more, too, as you wouldn't have to send out policemen, who could be shot at (if anyone in the mob had a gun), just turn the devices on. It could also be useful to keep protestors outside a certain area--for instance, keep a buffer zone around the embassy or whatever that if they come inside it, they get a nasty shock.
I can certainly see how it could be dangerous in the hands of a despot, but so can guns and tear gas. If they want to stop protests, they're going to do it, and if they use this rather than "policemen" armed with machine guns, it could save lives. If this device can decrease injuries and deaths in protests, of which there are not huge numbers, but some, it sounds like a good thing in my book.
In the end, it is a tool, whose purpose is only determined by the person using it. It's not even one designed to kill, only to hurt, and therefore keep someone away.
Dan Aris
Heh, it all depends on your definition of "creativity," doesn't it? To us, it might mean, "being able to come up with new, interesting, original concepts and mechanics that make games more fun than the games that came before," or something like that. To the publishers, however, I'm pretty sure "creativity" means "being able to make a game that makes us lots and lots and lots and lots of money."
YMMV.
;-)
Dan Aris
"Screw the customers" attitude (That's right, SquareEnix, I'm talking to you, bitches)
Out of curiosity, where do you see this attitude from Square Enix? Everything I've seen from them lately has been relatively customer-friendly...though I'll freely admit I've only paid attention to the offline Final Fantasies. (which, by the way, I'm quite fond of, so if it's just the fact of Final Fantasy in general that irks you, you'll not find a sympathetic ear here ;-P)
Dan Aris
???
The best I can guess is that you're commenting on my .Mac email address, and thus implying that I'm one of the people I talk about. I happen not to be; I buy Macs because I like them, and can't stand Microsoft in general and Windows in particular.
If that's not your point....do you have one?
Dan Aris
It was because the person you replied to said you were arguing by extrapolating from yourself to the world, and you said, "No, I'm not," and then proceeded to say what you were doing, which, to anyone who is not completely self-centered, would quite clearly be an example of extrapolating from yourself to the world.
Oh, and your sig seriously ticked me off...but I didn't actually read it until after I had written the reply, and was thinking about whether I actually wanted to post it or not. It seemed almost like a challenge.
Dan Aris
A lot of Mac users assume that everyone else also uses a Mac, primarily because they, personally, have never used anything else.
Is this from personal experience? Because everything I've seen points to the opposite. (I'm not calling you a liar, I'm genuinely curious if you know people like that)
What I've seen is that many people who use Windows assume--well, it can't even be called assuming everyone else uses Windows, because they don't even know there's anything else. In fact, some don't even know there's something called Windows--it's just The Computer. If you asked them what operating system they ran, they might say something like "Word" or "PowerPoint."
I'm not claiming that it's universal, or even statistically significant, but in my experience, casual Mac users are more generally computer-literate, on average, than casual Windows users. That's "casual" as in "not geeks or even close"--people who just want the computer to do what they tell it to. And I certainly don't know if it's correlation or causation, and if causation, which way around it goes--if they, being a bit more educated about computers, choose to buy Macs, or if, having gotten a Mac, it's easier to figure out how to do more stuff without breaking the darn thing.
Of course, the one true rule of computers and statistics can basically be summed up as "YMMV". I'm a very happy Mac user, but a bit disgruntled currently because my TiBook's hinge is broken, and it would cost nearly $700 for Apple to fix it...but I'd recommend a Mac to anyone and everyone, unless they absolutely needed specific software that was Windows-only.
Dan Aris
PS. Just thought of something I thought I should add, in the interests of accuracy: many, if not most, of the casual Mac users I know are college professors and staff/administration, so they have, at least theoretically, a higher level of general education to begin with.
No, it is not. My argument is that people don't base decisions as to whether to buy hardware that costs over $1000 on just seeing it at their neighbor's house.
No, your argument is that YOU wouldn't base such decisions on such events, and are extrapolating that to other people. Well, here's a news flash for you, ego-boy:
NOT EVERYBODY THINKS LIKE YOU!!!
Do you get it yet? There really, truly, are people who would go out and buy a $2000+ G5 because they saw their friends using it and thought it looked snazzy. You're clearly not one of them, and you may not even know any of them, but they do exist! Plenty of people in this world base decisions on things other than cold, hard, numbers, things like cool looks, friends' words, and even just plain impulse.
So why don't you step out of your basement (or bathroom, as the case may be...) and take a look at the real world every once in a while? You might meet some people who (*gasp*) have opinions other than your own (and my own, and those of anyone else on Slashdot). It will be good for you.
Dan Aris
Oh, right; that's true. However, it was not introduced until 10.2.8, which might (not sure about this) have been released after Panther was released. It was certainly released after WWDC 2003, when Panther was announced.
So there was no support for it before Panther, but there is support for it in pre-Panther versions. My nits stand picked ;-)
Dan Aris
That's not quite correct. In Panther (Mac OS X 10.3, for the uninitiated), journaling is enabled by default: that is, when you first install Panther, it will add journaling to your existing HFS+ disk, and if you're reformatting, it will default to HFS+ (Journaled). However, prior to Panther, there was no journaling support in HFS+, to my knowledge.
Dan Aris
Not actually for the N64, as I recall, but for SGI machines. You can download three clips from it, as well as get a bit of other info, at RPGamer's site.
Dan Aris
As it is, everyone who matters can see how ridiculous that is.
Do you really think so? Because I don't. I doubt that many PHBs looking at this report would say, "Oh, that's a lot of balderdash," or whatever. They'd look at it, see that it came from a (supposedly) reputable institution, and believe every word. Because most of them don't know much about Linux, or the roots of the modern technopolitical climate.
I suspect that any ordinary mortal reading it would be similar. They'd say, "Oh, so this guy who has been claiming to have invented Linux all along has been lying? And he actually stole it from someone else? I guess I probably shouldn't use it, if it's stolen..." or something like that.
Regardless of their immediate reaction, I strongly suspect that it would have the desired effect upon those who don't frequent sites like Slashdot: the effect of sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Thus making people want to stick with what they know, which, in the vast majority of cases, is Windows--and in the cases of PHBs, that can mean that no one under their control is allowed to use anything else.
So do you still think we're the only ones who "matter"?
Dan Aris
Unfortunately, they won't fix my 8-month-old TiBook with AppleCare and broken hinges.
The problem is, of course, that it wasn't a "defect" that caused them to break. It was...well, I don't know what it was. I jump up, 'cause I hear a bunch of stuff fall down in the next room, I try to put my computer down on the little table...and my aim is a fraction of an inch off, so it hits on its corner, rather than landing on its base. The screen bends backwards.
It's still a perfectly usable computer, it just needs its screen propped up on something. And to fix it would cost nearly $700.
I'm considering giving it to my fiancee in a few months when we get married, and getting myself a newer AlBook. And being a little more careful with it this time. :-/
So don't forget, AppleCare only covers things that break by themselves. I know, it's the standard way to do warranties, but it's still really annoying.
Dan Aris