I of course recognize the versatility and quality of modern MIDI synthesizers, and I'm not an audiophile who demands the "warmth" of real instruments, but there's definitely a difference between analog instruments and synths. I use MIDI for playback of other instruments while I tweak a lead or a solo, but I'm infinitely more satisfied with the tracks I lay down. Perhaps that's just a testament to my shortcomings as a MIDI musician and my semi-pro gear...:)
To me, that picture has always seemed out of context. The man is holding (what appears to be) a briefcase, and is standing in (what appears to be) a crosswalk. The angle of his body does not suggest defiance, but rather as if he wasn't paying attention, and suddenly turned to find a tank three feet away from him.
/nah, not really, but kinda funny to imagine. //keep fighting for freedom.
I could drive into town and spend £12/$12 on a DRM'd malware infected CD which may or may not play in my cars CD player / Ipod..... Maybe they should try offering value for money instead.
Well, geez, they already threw in a free rootkit! What more do you want?
Is the general population that dumb where they can't be educated or do you just want trying to make yourself superior?
Yes, to both.
/semi-serious humor
Regardless of how smart or stupid you choose to perceive people, the fact is that "nuclear" has one set connotation in people's minds. In truth, even I have an initial-- skepticism, for lack of a better word-- when I hear "nuclear" or "radiation". Now, personally I know that "nuclear" simply means "dealing with the nucleus" and "radiation" means "giving off energy", so my concerns are quelled. Being afraid of these concepts is like being afraid of "propulsion devices", because one such device is a gun (pardon the poor analogy).
So is the general population so dumb that they can't be educated? Meh, debatable. But is it probable that they will be educated, when they've had 60 years to learn? Not really.
I came across this yesterday (I forget how), and it's actually pretty cool. I didn't spend a lot of time using it, but I picked two bands that I liked, and out of the eight or nine songs that it played, there was only one I didn't like.
I agree that the rating system needs more refinement, but this seems to be a stage 1 product. The sound quality was really good, the interface is nice (if not a little Flash-bloated), and the music collection seems pretty extensive. I'd like to see how it progresses in the coming months (the page said it's going to start placing ads soon... whether they're audio ads or banner ads, we'll have to wait and see). However it may be a new contender for dethroning Launchcast as my favorite internet radio station.
It costs them more if you buy the box and no games or XBox live
Uh, no. That statement is only true if with the premise that there is a finite number of XBoxes, and the ones you don't buy will be sold to people who will also buy games and Live. However, every unit sold lessens their loss versus an unsold unit.
Judging by the numbers you quote in your second paragraph, I assume you were talking about the XBox360, in which case the premise would likely be true. But with the original XBox that aren't in hot demand now, not buying a unit makes them lose more money than buying.
/Anyone who buys something out of spite is an idiot //I love Microsoft.
eh... quiet is defined as "little or no activity" or "little or no noise". So it's not necessarily silent, but close. So more quiet and quieter are correct.
But I agree with the "more perfect" thing in my sibling's post, although I suppose that's just a symbolic phrase for "closer to perfect".
Right. Exactly right, actually. I wholly accept the possibility of Intelligent Design. However, I also recognize the vast improbability of it, in the face of so much support for pure evolution. Like I said, there are still a few holes in the theory, but I am more confident that they can be explained by science than by a nudge from a noodly appendage.
Point taken. I don't know how much it will invalidate my argument to concede that humans aren't wholly rational, that we are still subject to our emotions, as well as physical and subcognitive processes. Certainly I don't mean to say that a human is 100% logical, all the time. And certainly, people, to a certain degree, choose to be irrational and illogical; or rather, to disobey logic. And I believe that every such action goes against our true nature, which is not to say it's wrong, just unnatural.
I guess my point was on a slighty more basic level. Strip away from a human all societal knowledge, memes, culture, beliefs, etc. In fact, strip away everything that makes a homosapien a human. On an organism level, you still have a creature that is chemically and physically more capable of logic and problem-solving than any other known species. We have the ability to recognize logic and engage in abstractual thinking. From this premise, I drew my conclusions about the importance of logic; without it, we would be poorly-architected apes... whether or not you believe in evolution.
So while humans as a species do go against logic, and while I admit that I don't think it's wrong, I also don't think it should be encouraged by society.
If you look to the clergy to settle the matter you are no more scientist than Reverand Jimmy in his Waco Texas megabox church. He is just as convinced that the bible is infallable. He makes blind assertions too.
The difference is this: while there is no concrete or "rigorous formulation", every observable fact leads to this conclusion. It's not called the Theory of Evolution because some guy just thought it up, it's called such because it has not yet been authoritively proven. That doesn't discredit its merit; every field of science generally agrees that all life evolved from single-celled organisms. But since there are still a few holes to be patched up, scienctists refer to it as a theory.
Now, in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with Intelligent Design inherently. I'm an agnostic (who leans towards atheism) who believes in and supports the theory of evolution, but I also believe ID is a possibility, just not a probability. The problem I have with Intelligent Design is that there is NO EVIDENCE to support it, as opposed to MUCH EVIDENCE for evolution. Just because they are both technically "theories" does not put them on the same footing, as ID supporters claim.
/* Rant
Regardless of whether you believe in evolution or ID, god or God or gods or no god, I think there is one fact that no human being can honestly deny: Human beings are logical. Whether we were designed this way or evolved into it, we are a species that possesses a great capacity for logic and rationality (regardless of how or if we choose to use it...). If god/God created us, it would be wrong of it/Him to expect us to forgo our logic -- the very thing which makes us human-- to believe something for no reason. And if we evolved this way from nothingness, it would be wrong of us to stop evolving by not utilizing our abilities.
I hope this doesn't sound crass... But people want more than food and standard living conditions... (Which of course everyone should have)
When people refer to the poor in Africa, they don't refer to the people who live in the Projects and eat dog food; they refer to the people who live nowhere and eat nothing and starve to death. I agree with your point about preoccupatory distractions (kind of), but it's more important to accomodate necessities for the starving than to provide luxuries for the impoverished. There is no base standard of living in most African countries to raise; one must be established first before they try to improve it. Free software and access to information is noble and highly beneficial, but the core necessities of life must first be available.
As for your point regarding Playstations and Palestinians, I'm not sure I agree. Sure, the restlessness and sexual/religious-oppression frustrations will eventually manifest into violence, but distracting a few potential suicide bombers will not make the problem go away. They have to understand why their ideologies need a little revision in order to make any significant change in the situation.
Sure, what they really need is land and jobs and freedom, but if they can't have that then maybe they need something to better occupy their time.
This I disagree with entirely. These are human beings; I think it's rather dehumanizing to say that, "well, barring freedom and the other cornerstones for civilization, as least they'll be distracted." I would say it's our duty as a human race to fight for them and help them get land and jobs and freedom.
I'm usually one to parade around in my self-aggrandizing arrogance that all the people around me are mindless automatons, but that has nothing to do with why Windows owns the market today.
For many, MANY years, Windows was the only viable operating system for the masses. There was no Linux (and when there was, it was horribly complicated and hobbyist; only recently has it gotten better), and Macs were too expensive for widespread adoption. Since Windows was the only affordable, "professional" platform, people used it. Its ease of use compensated for its bugs and insecurities. People developed for it.
Now, it's kind of a legacy thing. Because it is the accepted OS, most companies still develop for it. Lots of polished, easy-to-use applications are the reason it maintains ~95% of the market.
OSS supporters need to wake up. Windows is far from perfect, but it's pretty damned good. Blindly parroting its flaws from Win95/98 days hurts your credibility, and it makes you believe that Linux/BSD is a better platform than it really is, and that it's the users' fault for sticking with Microsoft.
Ahh, we all knew one day that the confusion with the G at the start of a GIF file would seep into modern day life... is it pronounced Gif(t) or Jif?
um... one is a graphic interchange format, and the other is what choosy moms choose... I think your parent post was alluding to how Chistopher Lloyd pronounced it in the movies.
I'm often unpleasantly surprised with some of my supposedly technical colleagues' ignorance as to how computers work
Yeah, I'm often faced with that, too. Even if the person isn't just reciting their textbook verbatim, they're field of knowledge is VERY specialized to only one or two things.
However, as displeasing as it may be to technologists like me and (assumingly) you, it's not really a surprise. Technology in itself is no longer niche, it is so prevalent and so... commoditized --for lack of a better word-- that it is just another tool that people must maintain and use.
So while it's a bit disappointing that the Exchange Admin here can barely navigate the desktop (but manages his servers top-notch), I don't think it says anything about a knowledge/passion gap in generations. Hell, I'm only 20, and I can confidently say that I know more about more aspects of computers/technology than most of the people much older than me.
The poorest people need help to survive, not surf the web or read ebooks
Um... that's not all a computer is good for. Being familiar with technology and knowing--at least-- the basics of computer use (to say nothing of vocational education) is certainly beneficial to competing in today's "global ecomony".
That said, I don't agree that this is the best allocation of resources for helping the poor. Maybe it's just because I don't see the advantage of a "global economy", and that I'm a naturist at heart. But then again, if that's what it takes to improve the quality of life for the impoverished, then I can't oppose it either.
The ads don't pay for the content you download, though; that is, the money from the ads doesn't pay the copyright holder, it pays Mr. Navin and Mr. Cohen. Movie studios will still charge you separately to download the movie, they'll just use BitTorrent to serve it. So basically, you pay for the movie, watch ads while it downloads, and are constrained by whatever crippling DRM is applied to the content.
I'm not pro-piracy, but that doesn't sound like a very tempting offer.
The plural of anecdote is not data, you are correct. However, the fact that even IBM does not use their own hard drives in the systems they sell should be a pretty good indication.
I did a ~1000 T42 laptop rollout a few months ago, and I don't think a single drive was IBM/Hitachi. They were mostly Seagates, with a few Maxtors, I think.
Right now I'm setting up two IBM TotalStorage SAN solutions, and all the drives are Maxtors.
But I agree with your points and the GP's points, too. I avoid certain HD manufacturers like the plague, just because a few of their drives have failed on me, and left me silently weeping at my out-of-date backups.
"That file doesn't say 'true love'. It says 'to blave', and, as we all know, 'to blave' means 'to bluff'. So you were probably playing solitaire, and--"
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a bit late on the reply, but...
I of course recognize the versatility and quality of modern MIDI synthesizers, and I'm not an audiophile who demands the "warmth" of real instruments, but there's definitely a difference between analog instruments and synths. I use MIDI for playback of other instruments while I tweak a lead or a solo, but I'm infinitely more satisfied with the tracks I lay down. Perhaps that's just a testament to my shortcomings as a MIDI musician and my semi-pro gear... :)
To me, that picture has always seemed out of context. The man is holding (what appears to be) a briefcase, and is standing in (what appears to be) a crosswalk. The angle of his body does not suggest defiance, but rather as if he wasn't paying attention, and suddenly turned to find a tank three feet away from him.
/nah, not really, but kinda funny to imagine.
//keep fighting for freedom.
Yeah, I'm going to dissolve my band and produce all my music in MIDI now.
Yeah, but verbing weirds words.
/Calvin and Hobbes
I could drive into town and spend £12/$12 on a DRM'd malware infected CD which may or may not play in my cars CD player / Ipod..... Maybe they should try offering value for money instead.
Well, geez, they already threw in a free rootkit! What more do you want?
Is the general population that dumb where they can't be educated or do you just want trying to make yourself superior?
/semi-serious humor
Yes, to both.
Regardless of how smart or stupid you choose to perceive people, the fact is that "nuclear" has one set connotation in people's minds. In truth, even I have an initial-- skepticism, for lack of a better word-- when I hear "nuclear" or "radiation". Now, personally I know that "nuclear" simply means "dealing with the nucleus" and "radiation" means "giving off energy", so my concerns are quelled. Being afraid of these concepts is like being afraid of "propulsion devices", because one such device is a gun (pardon the poor analogy).
So is the general population so dumb that they can't be educated? Meh, debatable. But is it probable that they will be educated, when they've had 60 years to learn? Not really.
I came across this yesterday (I forget how), and it's actually pretty cool. I didn't spend a lot of time using it, but I picked two bands that I liked, and out of the eight or nine songs that it played, there was only one I didn't like.
I agree that the rating system needs more refinement, but this seems to be a stage 1 product. The sound quality was really good, the interface is nice (if not a little Flash-bloated), and the music collection seems pretty extensive. I'd like to see how it progresses in the coming months (the page said it's going to start placing ads soon... whether they're audio ads or banner ads, we'll have to wait and see). However it may be a new contender for dethroning Launchcast as my favorite internet radio station.
It costs them more if you buy the box and no games or XBox live
/Anyone who buys something out of spite is an idiot
//I love Microsoft.
Uh, no. That statement is only true if with the premise that there is a finite number of XBoxes, and the ones you don't buy will be sold to people who will also buy games and Live. However, every unit sold lessens their loss versus an unsold unit.
Judging by the numbers you quote in your second paragraph, I assume you were talking about the XBox360, in which case the premise would likely be true. But with the original XBox that aren't in hot demand now, not buying a unit makes them lose more money than buying.
eh... quiet is defined as "little or no activity" or "little or no noise". So it's not necessarily silent, but close. So more quiet and quieter are correct.
But I agree with the "more perfect" thing in my sibling's post, although I suppose that's just a symbolic phrase for "closer to perfect".
Right. Exactly right, actually. I wholly accept the possibility of Intelligent Design. However, I also recognize the vast improbability of it, in the face of so much support for pure evolution. Like I said, there are still a few holes in the theory, but I am more confident that they can be explained by science than by a nudge from a noodly appendage.
Point taken. I don't know how much it will invalidate my argument to concede that humans aren't wholly rational, that we are still subject to our emotions, as well as physical and subcognitive processes. Certainly I don't mean to say that a human is 100% logical, all the time. And certainly, people, to a certain degree, choose to be irrational and illogical; or rather, to disobey logic. And I believe that every such action goes against our true nature, which is not to say it's wrong, just unnatural.
I guess my point was on a slighty more basic level. Strip away from a human all societal knowledge, memes, culture, beliefs, etc. In fact, strip away everything that makes a homosapien a human. On an organism level, you still have a creature that is chemically and physically more capable of logic and problem-solving than any other known species. We have the ability to recognize logic and engage in abstractual thinking. From this premise, I drew my conclusions about the importance of logic; without it, we would be poorly-architected apes... whether or not you believe in evolution.
So while humans as a species do go against logic, and while I admit that I don't think it's wrong, I also don't think it should be encouraged by society.
... Marry me*.
This offer only good in Massachussetts if you are male*.
This offer not really good, but you made a good post nevertheless.
If you look to the clergy to settle the matter you are no more scientist than Reverand Jimmy in his Waco Texas megabox church. He is just as convinced that the bible is infallable. He makes blind assertions too.
/* Rant
The difference is this: while there is no concrete or "rigorous formulation", every observable fact leads to this conclusion. It's not called the Theory of Evolution because some guy just thought it up, it's called such because it has not yet been authoritively proven. That doesn't discredit its merit; every field of science generally agrees that all life evolved from single-celled organisms. But since there are still a few holes to be patched up, scienctists refer to it as a theory.
Now, in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with Intelligent Design inherently. I'm an agnostic (who leans towards atheism) who believes in and supports the theory of evolution, but I also believe ID is a possibility, just not a probability. The problem I have with Intelligent Design is that there is NO EVIDENCE to support it, as opposed to MUCH EVIDENCE for evolution. Just because they are both technically "theories" does not put them on the same footing, as ID supporters claim.
Regardless of whether you believe in evolution or ID, god or God or gods or no god, I think there is one fact that no human being can honestly deny: Human beings are logical. Whether we were designed this way or evolved into it, we are a species that possesses a great capacity for logic and rationality (regardless of how or if we choose to use it...). If god/God created us, it would be wrong of it/Him to expect us to forgo our logic -- the very thing which makes us human-- to believe something for no reason. And if we evolved this way from nothingness, it would be wrong of us to stop evolving by not utilizing our abilities.
End Rant */
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
I hope this doesn't sound crass... But people want more than food and standard living conditions... (Which of course everyone should have)
When people refer to the poor in Africa, they don't refer to the people who live in the Projects and eat dog food; they refer to the people who live nowhere and eat nothing and starve to death. I agree with your point about preoccupatory distractions (kind of), but it's more important to accomodate necessities for the starving than to provide luxuries for the impoverished. There is no base standard of living in most African countries to raise; one must be established first before they try to improve it. Free software and access to information is noble and highly beneficial, but the core necessities of life must first be available.
As for your point regarding Playstations and Palestinians, I'm not sure I agree. Sure, the restlessness and sexual/religious-oppression frustrations will eventually manifest into violence, but distracting a few potential suicide bombers will not make the problem go away. They have to understand why their ideologies need a little revision in order to make any significant change in the situation.
Sure, what they really need is land and jobs and freedom, but if they can't have that then maybe they need something to better occupy their time.
This I disagree with entirely. These are human beings; I think it's rather dehumanizing to say that, "well, barring freedom and the other cornerstones for civilization, as least they'll be distracted." I would say it's our duty as a human race to fight for them and help them get land and jobs and freedom.
Why does Schwartz talk like Ali G? Although, admittedly, it does make for a funny transcription...
What? No.
I'm usually one to parade around in my self-aggrandizing arrogance that all the people around me are mindless automatons, but that has nothing to do with why Windows owns the market today.
For many, MANY years, Windows was the only viable operating system for the masses. There was no Linux (and when there was, it was horribly complicated and hobbyist; only recently has it gotten better), and Macs were too expensive for widespread adoption. Since Windows was the only affordable, "professional" platform, people used it. Its ease of use compensated for its bugs and insecurities. People developed for it.
Now, it's kind of a legacy thing. Because it is the accepted OS, most companies still develop for it. Lots of polished, easy-to-use applications are the reason it maintains ~95% of the market.
OSS supporters need to wake up. Windows is far from perfect, but it's pretty damned good. Blindly parroting its flaws from Win95/98 days hurts your credibility, and it makes you believe that Linux/BSD is a better platform than it really is, and that it's the users' fault for sticking with Microsoft.
Ahh, we all knew one day that the confusion with the G at the start of a GIF file would seep into modern day life... is it pronounced Gif(t) or Jif?
um... one is a graphic interchange format, and the other is what choosy moms choose... I think your parent post was alluding to how Chistopher Lloyd pronounced it in the movies.
I'm often unpleasantly surprised with some of my supposedly technical colleagues' ignorance as to how computers work
Yeah, I'm often faced with that, too. Even if the person isn't just reciting their textbook verbatim, they're field of knowledge is VERY specialized to only one or two things.
However, as displeasing as it may be to technologists like me and (assumingly) you, it's not really a surprise. Technology in itself is no longer niche, it is so prevalent and so... commoditized --for lack of a better word-- that it is just another tool that people must maintain and use.
So while it's a bit disappointing that the Exchange Admin here can barely navigate the desktop (but manages his servers top-notch), I don't think it says anything about a knowledge/passion gap in generations. Hell, I'm only 20, and I can confidently say that I know more about more aspects of computers/technology than most of the people much older than me.
The poorest people need help to survive, not surf the web or read ebooks
Um... that's not all a computer is good for. Being familiar with technology and knowing--at least-- the basics of computer use (to say nothing of vocational education) is certainly beneficial to competing in today's "global ecomony".
That said, I don't agree that this is the best allocation of resources for helping the poor. Maybe it's just because I don't see the advantage of a "global economy", and that I'm a naturist at heart. But then again, if that's what it takes to improve the quality of life for the impoverished, then I can't oppose it either.
The ads don't pay for the content you download, though; that is, the money from the ads doesn't pay the copyright holder, it pays Mr. Navin and Mr. Cohen. Movie studios will still charge you separately to download the movie, they'll just use BitTorrent to serve it. So basically, you pay for the movie, watch ads while it downloads, and are constrained by whatever crippling DRM is applied to the content.
I'm not pro-piracy, but that doesn't sound like a very tempting offer.
The plural of anecdote is not data, you are correct. However, the fact that even IBM does not use their own hard drives in the systems they sell should be a pretty good indication.
I did a ~1000 T42 laptop rollout a few months ago, and I don't think a single drive was IBM/Hitachi. They were mostly Seagates, with a few Maxtors, I think.
Right now I'm setting up two IBM TotalStorage SAN solutions, and all the drives are Maxtors.
But I agree with your points and the GP's points, too. I avoid certain HD manufacturers like the plague, just because a few of their drives have failed on me, and left me silently weeping at my out-of-date backups.
Sorry, super OT, but is your sig from Braveheart? I don't know why I felt compelled to ask...
It's not like they really need to purge a bunch of 'food, chase the mouse, take a dump, lick butt, repeat' memories each day.
Quite to the contrary, if I spent the day licking my own butt, I'd probably need my memory erased every night, too.
VERY nice.
"That file doesn't say 'true love'. It says 'to blave', and, as we all know, 'to blave' means 'to bluff'. So you were probably playing solitaire, and--"