Quazar, I normally would agree with you but your argument completely ignores the new surge of iTunes stream downloading, which *IS* stealing. While I would love to listen to my collection from home, the benefits do not outweight the costs...Apple has to act responsibily to everyone involved.
You want to rail at someone - complain to the authors of iBug, iSlurp, iTunesdl and iLeech. It *is* unethical and illegal...They took innocent narrowcasting and converted it to a means of internet song distribution, a mini-p2p with one small change: it's *without* the music owner's permission. iTunes 4 becomes Kazaa with a soundtrack.
Apple stuck its neck out to bring us the iTunes store, to give us ease AND choice and finally, to make it affordable. And it had to shove this model down the throats of an industry that had done everything it could in the past 10 years to get rid of the music single. It's a real 180-degree turn for music companies, and Apple deserves to be supported in this venture - they can't afford mistakes (or iLeeches).
Actually, this is exactly what I was looking for. It's time for me to sell-off the old systems and upgrade (especially if the processors are competetive and it's bus is upgraded to the long-fabled HyperTransport).
But when I think on it a bit, I've been ready for a new Mac for *over a year* now. If this moves me (and I'm a VERY cheap bastard) then I would expect the masses to follow...
If it looks good enough, I'll pick up a new system AND a wad of Apple stock!
Um, I know PCs and Unix, but at home I never want to sit down and have to explain it my girlfriend. Or explain why her software isn't working like it was yesterday. Or explain why she can't bring her work home because the computer is screwed up.
At home, I buy Macs. I will continue to buy Macs.
I don't want to be a "superuser", even though it's a dodge. I would rather the machine "just work" - that , in my heart, makes me more a user than not.
And it's a dodge because the question was asked about MS and their updates, not the level of the user. All an intelligent user can do is "not" install a patch - smart or dumb, you're screwed once the patch is installed.
If you want to act elitist, knock yourself right out. But frankly the machine doesn't care. And increacingly, neither do I.
Which is why my house has these: * Sun 5, for my testing and development * Apple iBook/OS X * Apple G4 450/OS X * Windows 2K box (for the occasional test)
The machines are all too old now, but I've been olding out for the new IBM chip. Either way, I'm not buying another Windows box for myself. Ever.
""More often than not"? Really? That hasn't been my experience. In fact, I haven't experienced a single problem due to a Windows update."
You want examples? Try using Win2K and WebTrends Web Analyzer (and don't change the subject by suggesting a different log analysis tool - this is required by the company).
Somewhere, after a raft of updates last winter, the damn system kept locking-up in the middle of analysis. So we rip it down, build it back up fresh and remove anything that could cause issues. Same problem. The machine's a Dell Optiplex PIII 450, with 384MB of RAM and 40GBs of drive space - and it can't reliably run a logfile of 2MB without locking-up hard. And so we do it again. And again. Feh!
We're all baffled. Anything else can run, and WebTrends says they'e compatible but quietly acknowledges (via a help person) that Win2K people have been having update issues. I've spoken to others so this bit of anecdotal information strikes a nerve.
WinXP has given me issues with media player codec problems, window redraws, explorer.exe running wild (climbing to 99% of processor time) after servicepak 1.
Windows sucks. Period. We all know it. We're the smart ones, but the other 90% of the user base is either too frightened/lazy to change to something that works, or too cynical to even consider change. The damn system is mystery to most users - they just pray it works, and when it doesn't, all they can do is rip it out and start over.
Hey - no problem. I'm just a fan since the first series came out when I was a kid.
I don't follow as much as I used to, since the dissolution of the utopian future by Bergman et al. The tone changed in DS9, too paranoid and political for my tastes. Then again I never did memorize the facts of any of the shows, but I did have the first Technical Manuals, went to the theatres on opening night and had a model hanging over my bed in 1967. I just enjoyed it.
DS9 was a waste of my time, as was Voyager - thinly-worked soap operas in space. I occasionally hope for better things from Enterprise (which I generally like) but it's losing my interest, cat-suit or not. Yawn. And I'm waiting for Archer to drop the "Aw, shucks" attitude and be a bit more gung-ho, like Kirk was. I miss the ol' coyboy sometimes, girdle and all.
I guess I'm no longer a fan, but just a typical VIEWER now. Could explain the numbers...
"The big startling clue here is that the NX-01 was named Enterprise, yet the NX-01 was never mentioned in any of the other series. "
Ahem - the big, startling clue here is that the Enterprise never met these MARKETING people before. I betcha there was a round-table on this ("But 'nX' sounds so much more cool than just 'n', and we want that demographic")
Well, that's true - and I'll grant you that. The problem is that you have to really sell it to the audience, and I think it's not obvious at all from the pre-event marketing (especially the press surrounding one giant inflatable metaphor in Times Square).
And it's about filling seats - word of mouth can drive a movie, but Arnie movies were events. This seems to be the place where the train left the tracks...
True Lies came first - and was a bigger hit - than the Lamentable Action Hero. The problem was the LAC was both formula (evil guy with minions, the kid saves the day, etc, etc) and anti-formula, so audiences felt completely manipulated. And worse - were aware of it. And doubly-worse - really identified Arhnuld with the role, since it was "typical Arhnuld" fare.
James Cameron was on the BBC (Blue Peter) this weekend and said that his next film will be in 3D, using the three-dimentional camera systems he's helped develop for the Titanic documentary he's just done. And when asked by the presenter what KIND of movie, said Cameron "It'll be Sci-Fi". And that's all he'd say...
TRON: Undeappreciated at birth, confused the parents and jazzed the kids until "The Last Starfighter" came out and then it hit the dustbin...at least now it's getting the attention it truly deserved. It's a keystone film.
Flash Gordon: Wacky, wacky, wacky. Hope you like satire, tongue-in-cheek acting, excellent babes in vinyl outfits and a campy soundtrack from Queen. I use lines from it all the time - "I accept FULL responsibility, in the Emperor's name!"
Casino Royale - I'm sorry, but it's chock full of sight gags, 5 James Bonds, bad puns, tricks on the Bond lore, seminude Bond girls with huge patooties and is just too damn weird to follow at times, but I love it. Excellent score from Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. (Example site gag - running away from East German bad guys, one heroine lifts up a manhole cover to escape, only to hear Tom Jones singing "What's New Pussycat" down there...do/you/ get it?)
If you were getting crashing, and now the phone is dead, then I might suggest that the two could be connected. I'm one of 3 goofball-programmers in Holland that HAD to have the first off the trucks here, and we've never had a crash.
I suspect that most people's problems with the battery life stems from either of two things - the combination of the camera and (to a lesser degree) the multitasking OS.
For reference: Symbian apps run until the memory manager decides it needs more memory and kills one of the apps in the background. Apps rarely have a "CLOSE" or "QUIT" menu or button.
The nice part is that you can launch the notepad, jot a few notes down, jump to the phone and call someone and then jump back to the notepad WHILE IN THE PHONECALL to take more notes. Very cool and generally very energy efficient.
Except when one of the background apps is the camera.
I've run my phone actively for as much as 3 and a half days without having to recharge it, but if you leave the Communicam on in the background it will such the battery down in hours.
Owners of the P800 should look to a small app called Switcher which allows you to terminate any app. Kill the Communicam often and your battery will last like any modern phone.
Spoke to the SE people this weekend at CEBIT: * Word, Excel or PPT editing is a "3rd party opportunity" (read - in the pipeline) * Same with video recording, which makes sense, given the MPEG4 licencing issues * Fax software also 3rd party, and within a few months, as well as several GPS mapping solutions.
Also, there's a beta running around out there of new software for the P800 that addresses many of the sync/mail/addressbook issues (full SyncML compatibility) due in April.
For anyone AT CeBIT with a P800, go directly to the service desk at the back and haev them flash your phone with the latest patches. They're doing 4 phones at a time, all day long, so it can take 20-30 minutes to upgrade but the camera performance is every bit as good as the Nokia now. MUCH better low-light quality and hardly any running (it IS CMOS, of course)
It's coming soon, to a P800 near you...
Flash MX support is being done 3rd-party for SE/Macromedia by an english group whose name escapes me - I saw a press release in the past month discussing exactly this.
I have one too - it comes with a Doom-like game based on "Men in Black II". Kinda worthless as eDoom is available (also eQuake is coming, but the demo I saw ran v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y...
I live in The Netherlands now, and I just got a P800. My carrier (T-Online) has 3 plans that run atop the usual fees. Check this out:
1) 15 Euro fee per month, then each MB costs 1 Euro 2) 5 Euro fee per month, then each MB costs 5 Euros 3) No monthly fee, but each MB costs (get ready...) 30 Euros!
Gooooooodbyyyyyeee AvantGo!
I spoke to a friend back in Denver and he's getting charged 6-cents/MB! So I'm waiting...I've got GPRS but I'm not setting up a DAMN thing yet - at least the GSM service is relatively cheap.
I don't...only because I just got a P800 on Friday, but it does look to be a SCHWEET leetle tang!
Seriously, the cam IS very helpful - I snap the photos of people when I grab their phone numbers, so when a call comes in I can see who it is. Mounted in my car, it's great - I can instantly associate the photo without having to actually read anything, which makes driving alot safer.
The polyphonic ring tones can be as annoying as anything else out there, but it can also be a hell of alot less harsh on the ears. Boss calls, theme from "Empire Strikes Back" softly plays. 'Nuff said.
I love my Sony - I immediately replaced my Siemens SL45i and Palm Vx at once and never looked back. The new Sony line is kickass...
Slashdot Mirror
Quazar, I normally would agree with you but your argument completely ignores the new surge of iTunes stream downloading, which *IS* stealing. While I would love to listen to my collection from home, the benefits do not outweight the costs...Apple has to act responsibily to everyone involved. You want to rail at someone - complain to the authors of iBug, iSlurp, iTunesdl and iLeech. It *is* unethical and illegal...They took innocent narrowcasting and converted it to a means of internet song distribution, a mini-p2p with one small change: it's *without* the music owner's permission. iTunes 4 becomes Kazaa with a soundtrack. Apple stuck its neck out to bring us the iTunes store, to give us ease AND choice and finally, to make it affordable. And it had to shove this model down the throats of an industry that had done everything it could in the past 10 years to get rid of the music single. It's a real 180-degree turn for music companies, and Apple deserves to be supported in this venture - they can't afford mistakes (or iLeeches).
(oooh! I get to do a "mee too" post!)
Actually, this is exactly what I was looking for. It's time for me to sell-off the old systems and upgrade (especially if the processors are competetive and it's bus is upgraded to the long-fabled HyperTransport).
But when I think on it a bit, I've been ready for a new Mac for *over a year* now. If this moves me (and I'm a VERY cheap bastard) then I would expect the masses to follow...
If it looks good enough, I'll pick up a new system AND a wad of Apple stock!
Hey - Anyone know where O.J. was at the time?
Hmmm...deja vroom.
Um, I know PCs and Unix, but at home I never want to sit down and have to explain it my girlfriend. Or explain why her software isn't working like it was yesterday. Or explain why she can't bring her work home because the computer is screwed up.
;)
At home, I buy Macs. I will continue to buy Macs.
I don't want to be a "superuser", even though it's a dodge. I would rather the machine "just work" - that , in my heart, makes me more a user than not.
And it's a dodge because the question was asked about MS and their updates, not the level of the user. All an intelligent user can do is "not" install a patch - smart or dumb, you're screwed once the patch is installed.
If you want to act elitist, knock yourself right out. But frankly the machine doesn't care. And increacingly, neither do I.
But windows sure does keep it exciting!
Which is why my house has these:
* Sun 5, for my testing and development
* Apple iBook/OS X
* Apple G4 450/OS X
* Windows 2K box (for the occasional test)
The machines are all too old now, but I've been olding out for the new IBM chip. Either way, I'm not buying another Windows box for myself. Ever.
""More often than not"? Really? That hasn't been my experience. In fact, I haven't experienced a single problem due to a Windows update."
You want examples? Try using Win2K and WebTrends Web Analyzer (and don't change the subject by suggesting a different log analysis tool - this is required by the company).
Somewhere, after a raft of updates last winter, the damn system kept locking-up in the middle of analysis. So we rip it down, build it back up fresh and remove anything that could cause issues. Same problem. The machine's a Dell Optiplex PIII 450, with 384MB of RAM and 40GBs of drive space - and it can't reliably run a logfile of 2MB without locking-up hard. And so we do it again. And again. Feh!
We're all baffled. Anything else can run, and WebTrends says they'e compatible but quietly acknowledges (via a help person) that Win2K people have been having update issues. I've spoken to others so this bit of anecdotal information strikes a nerve.
WinXP has given me issues with media player codec problems, window redraws, explorer.exe running wild (climbing to 99% of processor time) after servicepak 1.
Windows sucks. Period. We all know it. We're the smart ones, but the other 90% of the user base is either too frightened/lazy to change to something that works, or too cynical to even consider change. The damn system is mystery to most users - they just pray it works, and when it doesn't, all they can do is rip it out and start over.
This is not the way it's supposed to be.
Hey - no problem. I'm just a fan since the first series came out when I was a kid.
I don't follow as much as I used to, since the dissolution of the utopian future by Bergman et al. The tone changed in DS9, too paranoid and political for my tastes. Then again I never did memorize the facts of any of the shows, but I did have the first Technical Manuals, went to the theatres on opening night and had a model hanging over my bed in 1967. I just enjoyed it.
DS9 was a waste of my time, as was Voyager - thinly-worked soap operas in space. I occasionally hope for better things from Enterprise (which I generally like) but it's losing my interest, cat-suit or not. Yawn. And I'm waiting for Archer to drop the "Aw, shucks" attitude and be a bit more gung-ho, like Kirk was. I miss the ol' coyboy sometimes, girdle and all.
I guess I'm no longer a fan, but just a typical VIEWER now. Could explain the numbers...
"The big startling clue here is that the NX-01 was named Enterprise, yet the NX-01 was never mentioned in any of the other series. " Ahem - the big, startling clue here is that the Enterprise never met these MARKETING people before. I betcha there was a round-table on this ("But 'nX' sounds so much more cool than just 'n', and we want that demographic")
Well, that's true - and I'll grant you that. The problem is that you have to really sell it to the audience, and I think it's not obvious at all from the pre-event marketing (especially the press surrounding one giant inflatable metaphor in Times Square).
And it's about filling seats - word of mouth can drive a movie, but Arnie movies were events. This seems to be the place where the train left the tracks...
True Lies came first - and was a bigger hit - than the Lamentable Action Hero. The problem was the LAC was both formula (evil guy with minions, the kid saves the day, etc, etc) and anti-formula, so audiences felt completely manipulated. And worse - were aware of it. And doubly-worse - really identified Arhnuld with the role, since it was "typical Arhnuld" fare.
And he swaggered. Modern audiences hate swagger.
Actually, I knew this hot blonde bartender in a Pennsylvania stripclub named "Tabby" - mrrrooww!
:P
And happily on the menu.
Oh...nevermind.
I haven't got the heart to do it. It's like kicking a puppy...
James Cameron was on the BBC (Blue Peter) this weekend and said that his next film will be in 3D, using the three-dimentional camera systems he's helped develop for the Titanic documentary he's just done. And when asked by the presenter what KIND of movie, said Cameron "It'll be Sci-Fi". And that's all he'd say...
Looks good...but is it "lickable", hmmm?
TRON: Undeappreciated at birth, confused the parents and jazzed the kids until "The Last Starfighter" came out and then it hit the dustbin...at least now it's getting the attention it truly deserved. It's a keystone film.
/you/ get it?)
Flash Gordon: Wacky, wacky, wacky. Hope you like satire, tongue-in-cheek acting, excellent babes in vinyl outfits and a campy soundtrack from Queen. I use lines from it all the time - "I accept FULL responsibility, in the Emperor's name!"
Casino Royale - I'm sorry, but it's chock full of sight gags, 5 James Bonds, bad puns, tricks on the Bond lore, seminude Bond girls with huge patooties and is just too damn weird to follow at times, but I love it. Excellent score from Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. (Example site gag - running away from East German bad guys, one heroine lifts up a manhole cover to escape, only to hear Tom Jones singing "What's New Pussycat" down there...do
Sarcasm is just weak irony with a brick tied to it's head.
If you were getting crashing, and now the phone is dead, then I might suggest that the two could be connected. I'm one of 3 goofball-programmers in Holland that HAD to have the first off the trucks here, and we've never had a crash.
I suspect that most people's problems with the battery life stems from either of two things - the combination of the camera and (to a lesser degree) the multitasking OS.
For reference: Symbian apps run until the memory manager decides it needs more memory and kills one of the apps in the background. Apps rarely have a "CLOSE" or "QUIT" menu or button.
The nice part is that you can launch the notepad, jot a few notes down, jump to the phone and call someone and then jump back to the notepad WHILE IN THE PHONECALL to take more notes. Very cool and generally very energy efficient.
Except when one of the background apps is the camera.
I've run my phone actively for as much as 3 and a half days without having to recharge it, but if you leave the Communicam on in the background it will such the battery down in hours.
Owners of the P800 should look to a small app called Switcher which allows you to terminate any app. Kill the Communicam often and your battery will last like any modern phone.
Java applet - "relax. Orange is connecting to you"
Ah! That's that the burning smell is...
Spoke to the SE people this weekend at CEBIT:
* Word, Excel or PPT editing is a "3rd party opportunity" (read - in the pipeline)
* Same with video recording, which makes sense, given the MPEG4 licencing issues
* Fax software also 3rd party, and within a few months, as well as several GPS mapping solutions.
Also, there's a beta running around out there of new software for the P800 that addresses many of the sync/mail/addressbook issues (full SyncML compatibility) due in April.
For anyone AT CeBIT with a P800, go directly to the service desk at the back and haev them flash your phone with the latest patches. They're doing 4 phones at a time, all day long, so it can take 20-30 minutes to upgrade but the camera performance is every bit as good as the Nokia now. MUCH better low-light quality and hardly any running (it IS CMOS, of course)
It's coming soon, to a P800 near you... Flash MX support is being done 3rd-party for SE/Macromedia by an english group whose name escapes me - I saw a press release in the past month discussing exactly this.
I have one too - it comes with a Doom-like game based on "Men in Black II". Kinda worthless as eDoom is available (also eQuake is coming, but the demo I saw ran v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y...
Europe! Cheaper?! HAH!!
I live in The Netherlands now, and I just got a P800. My carrier (T-Online) has 3 plans that run atop the usual fees. Check this out:
1) 15 Euro fee per month, then each MB costs 1 Euro
2) 5 Euro fee per month, then each MB costs 5 Euros
3) No monthly fee, but each MB costs (get ready...) 30 Euros!
Gooooooodbyyyyyeee AvantGo!
I spoke to a friend back in Denver and he's getting charged 6-cents/MB! So I'm waiting...I've got GPRS but I'm not setting up a DAMN thing yet - at least the GSM service is relatively cheap.
I don't...only because I just got a P800 on Friday, but it does look to be a SCHWEET leetle tang!
Seriously, the cam IS very helpful - I snap the photos of people when I grab their phone numbers, so when a call comes in I can see who it is. Mounted in my car, it's great - I can instantly associate the photo without having to actually read anything, which makes driving alot safer.
The polyphonic ring tones can be as annoying as anything else out there, but it can also be a hell of alot less harsh on the ears. Boss calls, theme from "Empire Strikes Back" softly plays. 'Nuff said.
I love my Sony - I immediately replaced my Siemens SL45i and Palm Vx at once and never looked back. The new Sony line is kickass...
2 machines, no problem at all...
Like the man wrote -
* update (let app run, get coffee)
* reboot (adjust chair, hide dirty coffee cups)
All done..