Although the people who still think that we're using the old meaning of "billion" would also think the world's population is over six million million;)
(I'm in the UK, and even though the media has long switched over to the US definition, it amazes me how many people still seem to think that a billion in the UK is "one million million" - given how often a "billion" is mentioned in various news items, it must distort their world view somewhat...)
As U.S. District Court Judge Lowell Reed said: "Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection".
Episode guides run the risk of violating both the "free" and "encyclopedia" parts:
But that logic would apply to just about all Wikipedia articles, since they must be based on verifiable sources. I think that's a rather paranoid interpretation of copyright law, and one that would stifle any repeat of information whatsoever.
As for "encyclopedias are not indiscriminate collections of information", I don't see that that applies to TV programmes.
Interesting, thanks I only knew about the USB ones.
Though it still involves buying an add-on - I mean, you might as well similarly say that all Amigas had MIDI support as standard, you just needed to buy the adapter...
the operating system and desktop were in ROM and the addition of MIDI ports was an inspired move on Atari's part that got the interest of the music crowd.
Note that AmigaOS was in ROM too, though additional files were provided on disk.
My 2007 PC doesn't have MIDI ports either. If I want them, I'll buy an add-on...
Their both European held brands that have nothing to do with their origonal companies
Just like the Macintosh brand.
Does it matter? Slashdot often features articles about computing history, anniversaries or whatever, and people enjoy discussing those time periods.
(Also your post is rather contradictory - yes, Commodore went bust and the company using the brand has nothing to do with the original, but that also means it doesn't make sense to "Look at the companies today". How the brands are used today has nothing to do with what things were like in the past. The current owner of Commodore doesn't even have the rights to the Amiga, so that's totally irrelevant.)
As for midi IO, you could plug a gadget into the amiga that did this, and it didn't cost much at all.
Yes, I always found it curious that this was seemingly such an issue. I mean, today PCs don't come with MIDI IO as standard (do Macs?), but that doesn't stop them being used for music, and I doubt you could dominate the music industry today simply by bringing out a computer that had MIDI IO as standard.
I guess couldn't be a serious contender with pcs and macs because for the first years it crashed often, and at that time people were used to much more stability.
UNIX users maybe, but MacOS and DOS were just as prone to crashes.
Assuming that the average person buys a new PC every 4 years (actual stats suggest the refresh rates are faster than this) and gets Vista with a new PC, Vista penetration should be at about 11% right now (and that assumes that NO ONE upgrades and total PC use is flat).
Do you have a source for those "actual stats"? I'd have thought most home users at least upgrade far less often.
Also note that those of us who upgrade more often are more likely to upgrade computers rather than buy whole-new-machines-complete-with-OS.
And avoiding new versions of Windows isn't anything new - similar happened with XP I believe.
Well things like Desktop Publishing that the Mac excelled in were hardly mainstream. The PC did better as business applications, as I say.
Personally I never had trouble with printing on the Amiga. Another nice thing was that the applications were so much cheaper (in fact, I believe that Wordperfect was at one time available on the Amiga, but most people seemed to prefer the much cheaper alternatives).
The Amiga also had true multitasking - the ST didn't.
Indeed, nor did the Mac ever have pre-emptive multitasking (only when they ditched MacOS for OS X), and it only appeared in Windows IIRC in 95.
It's interesting the way that so many of the Amiga's features which were looked down upon as being pointless or "toy" features were later touted as being wonderful features in other OSs.
I don't like working in my computer - just that I'd rather fix or upgrade it myself.
Maybe I'm "die-hard" in comparison to someone totally ignorant of how computers work, but it seems a rather broad definition of die-hard.
I don't know - I'm hopeless at things like DIY, or fixing things around the house, or gardening, but I wouldn't describe the many people who do do these things as "die-hard". I'm not sure what's special about computers that someone knowledgeable about their workings is "die-hard".
But nobody is trying to make laptops the universal replacement for desktops.
Well, the title says "Time to Start Saying Goodbye", and the researcher claims only die-hard desktop users will be left.
True, for most people, who don't know much about computers, a desktop will suffice. I'm not sure it's accurate to label people who are into computers, and prefer desktops, as "die-hard".
My preferences for using a desktop as my main machine are easier to upgrade, and easier to repair (just replace the bad bit, rather than sending it in for repair - which is more expensive, and also means me handing over all my data to random-corporation).
I can do it because it's modding the parent of the post to which I did comment, IOW the parent's parent. That's not "illegal". If I'd commented on the original first post, that would be a different matter.
Has this changed? It always used to be you couldn't mod and comment in the same story at all.
I'm extremely concerned though about how much info about me is on numerous company registers (in particular Google/DoubleClick), surely this information is far more likely to be abused.
Did you have to pay over £90 for Google/DoubleClick to collect information on you? Do you face a fine or prison if you fail to keep them up to date with details?
And I'm not sure I agree - a Government has far more power than a private company.
At least the government has an obligation to serve the public interest, corporations on the other hand have an obligation to exploit all profitable avenues.
But private companies will be involved in setting up this database, anyway.
Another useful feature was the way that you could keep the menu open by holding down the right mouse button, and then use the left to select multiple items - particularly useful when you have a series of tickboxes you want to select.
I'd love to have that available now, it's tiring having to open a menu (either a window menu or context menu) multiple times.
For example, upgrading the video was a hack job that usually require patching the ROM libraries with ones that new about the new video hardware.
In what sense do you mean upgrading video hardware? I mean, the custom chipset couldn't be upgraded - so yes, that was a downpoint, but using a standard chipset had advantages too.
It was a problem that there was never official support for graphics cards, but remember this was at a time when PC and Mac graphics weren't anything special to speak of in comparison. By the mid-to-late '90s, Commodore had gone bust, so it's not surprising that hacks were needed to keep things up to date.
I don't think the Amiga's "range" was any narrower than PCs or Macs of the time, which were also limited compared to today's machines.
It also wasn't pre-emptive, nor did it have protected memory.
It was pre-emptive. No, it didn't have protected memory, like many other operating systems of the time. Honestly, I'm not sure why people keep grinding on about this point - OS X and Windows NT didn't exist back then, and Linux was far from user-friendly at that point.
It also didn't keep up with progress
Well, the company going bust might have had something to do with that...
and the various recreation projects are struggling to retrofit more modern concepts into the basic design.
Which at the end of the day is a hard job for any OS. Look at the struggle of improving DOS/Windows 9x - finally it was better to switch to the NT line. And Apple didn't even bother, they had to ditch the old MacOS altogether rather than trying to fit in basic technologies like pre-emptive multitasking or protected memory (indeed, getting back on topic - BeOS was at one time a candidate for the replacement OS).
Slashdot Mirror
Although the people who still think that we're using the old meaning of "billion" would also think the world's population is over six million million ;)
(I'm in the UK, and even though the media has long switched over to the US definition, it amazes me how many people still seem to think that a billion in the UK is "one million million" - given how often a "billion" is mentioned in various news items, it must distort their world view somewhat...)
It doesn't make her gay, but makes one question Mohammed's orientation if the whole thing was consensual.
Erm, why?
At least in Britain, you can make fun of ... the Church of England.
Getting off topic, and it doesn't really affect your point, but note that the UK still has blasphemy laws.
As U.S. District Court Judge Lowell Reed said: "Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection".
Episode guides run the risk of violating both the "free" and "encyclopedia" parts:
But that logic would apply to just about all Wikipedia articles, since they must be based on verifiable sources. I think that's a rather paranoid interpretation of copyright law, and one that would stifle any repeat of information whatsoever.
As for "encyclopedias are not indiscriminate collections of information", I don't see that that applies to TV programmes.
Interesting, thanks I only knew about the USB ones.
Though it still involves buying an add-on - I mean, you might as well similarly say that all Amigas had MIDI support as standard, you just needed to buy the adapter...
the operating system and desktop were in ROM and the addition of MIDI ports was an inspired move on Atari's part that got the interest of the music crowd.
Note that AmigaOS was in ROM too, though additional files were provided on disk.
My 2007 PC doesn't have MIDI ports either. If I want them, I'll buy an add-on...
Their both European held brands that have nothing to do with their origonal companies
Just like the Macintosh brand.
Does it matter? Slashdot often features articles about computing history, anniversaries or whatever, and people enjoy discussing those time periods.
(Also your post is rather contradictory - yes, Commodore went bust and the company using the brand has nothing to do with the original, but that also means it doesn't make sense to "Look at the companies today". How the brands are used today has nothing to do with what things were like in the past. The current owner of Commodore doesn't even have the rights to the Amiga, so that's totally irrelevant.)
As for midi IO, you could plug a gadget into the amiga that did this, and it didn't cost much at all.
Yes, I always found it curious that this was seemingly such an issue. I mean, today PCs don't come with MIDI IO as standard (do Macs?), but that doesn't stop them being used for music, and I doubt you could dominate the music industry today simply by bringing out a computer that had MIDI IO as standard.
I guess couldn't be a serious contender with pcs and macs because for the first years it crashed often, and at that time people were used to much more stability.
UNIX users maybe, but MacOS and DOS were just as prone to crashes.
Assuming that the average person buys a new PC every 4 years (actual stats suggest the refresh rates are faster than this) and gets Vista with a new PC, Vista penetration should be at about 11% right now (and that assumes that NO ONE upgrades and total PC use is flat).
Do you have a source for those "actual stats"? I'd have thought most home users at least upgrade far less often.
Also note that those of us who upgrade more often are more likely to upgrade computers rather than buy whole-new-machines-complete-with-OS.
And avoiding new versions of Windows isn't anything new - similar happened with XP I believe.
Well things like Desktop Publishing that the Mac excelled in were hardly mainstream. The PC did better as business applications, as I say.
Personally I never had trouble with printing on the Amiga. Another nice thing was that the applications were so much cheaper (in fact, I believe that Wordperfect was at one time available on the Amiga, but most people seemed to prefer the much cheaper alternatives).
The Amiga also had true multitasking - the ST didn't.
Indeed, nor did the Mac ever have pre-emptive multitasking (only when they ditched MacOS for OS X), and it only appeared in Windows IIRC in 95.
It's interesting the way that so many of the Amiga's features which were looked down upon as being pointless or "toy" features were later touted as being wonderful features in other OSs.
The Amiga got better for productivity apps but nothing that would threaten what was available on the Mac or the PC at the same time.
For certain niches (DTP for the Mac, business for the PC) but I'm not sure that was true in general (especially things like 3D and video software).
I don't like working in my computer - just that I'd rather fix or upgrade it myself.
Maybe I'm "die-hard" in comparison to someone totally ignorant of how computers work, but it seems a rather broad definition of die-hard.
I don't know - I'm hopeless at things like DIY, or fixing things around the house, or gardening, but I wouldn't describe the many people who do do these things as "die-hard". I'm not sure what's special about computers that someone knowledgeable about their workings is "die-hard".
But nobody is trying to make laptops the universal replacement for desktops.
Well, the title says "Time to Start Saying Goodbye", and the researcher claims only die-hard desktop users will be left.
True, for most people, who don't know much about computers, a desktop will suffice. I'm not sure it's accurate to label people who are into computers, and prefer desktops, as "die-hard".
My preferences for using a desktop as my main machine are easier to upgrade, and easier to repair (just replace the bad bit, rather than sending it in for repair - which is more expensive, and also means me handing over all my data to random-corporation).
My $100 (ala ebay 2 years ago) 650mhz vaio notebook works pretty well for that, as well.
Though if we're going 2nd hand, for desktops a machine you could get being given away for free would do the job.
I can do it because it's modding the parent of the post to which I did comment, IOW the parent's parent. That's not "illegal". If I'd commented on the original first post, that would be a different matter.
Has this changed? It always used to be you couldn't mod and comment in the same story at all.
I'm extremely concerned though about how much info about me is on numerous company registers (in particular Google/DoubleClick), surely this information is far more likely to be abused.
Did you have to pay over £90 for Google/DoubleClick to collect information on you? Do you face a fine or prison if you fail to keep them up to date with details?
And I'm not sure I agree - a Government has far more power than a private company.
At least the government has an obligation to serve the public interest, corporations on the other hand have an obligation to exploit all profitable avenues.
But private companies will be involved in setting up this database, anyway.
I think the point is the difference between "stay away from the mythology" (what they say) and "completely unrelated" (what you say).
What you describe is bad design. The right UI design solution is never to put a lot of tickboxes in menus in the first place.
Doesn't have to be a lot, just more than 1.
Where should the options be placed instead?
Another useful feature was the way that you could keep the menu open by holding down the right mouse button, and then use the left to select multiple items - particularly useful when you have a series of tickboxes you want to select.
I'd love to have that available now, it's tiring having to open a menu (either a window menu or context menu) multiple times.
For example, upgrading the video was a hack job that usually require patching the ROM libraries with ones that new about the new video hardware.
In what sense do you mean upgrading video hardware? I mean, the custom chipset couldn't be upgraded - so yes, that was a downpoint, but using a standard chipset had advantages too.
It was a problem that there was never official support for graphics cards, but remember this was at a time when PC and Mac graphics weren't anything special to speak of in comparison. By the mid-to-late '90s, Commodore had gone bust, so it's not surprising that hacks were needed to keep things up to date.
I don't think the Amiga's "range" was any narrower than PCs or Macs of the time, which were also limited compared to today's machines.
Rewriting things from the ground up, without acceptable justification, has never been an effective strategy.
It's worked out okay for Apple and Microsoft.
It also wasn't pre-emptive, nor did it have protected memory.
It was pre-emptive. No, it didn't have protected memory, like many other operating systems of the time. Honestly, I'm not sure why people keep grinding on about this point - OS X and Windows NT didn't exist back then, and Linux was far from user-friendly at that point.
It also didn't keep up with progress
Well, the company going bust might have had something to do with that...
and the various recreation projects are struggling to retrofit more modern concepts into the basic design.
Which at the end of the day is a hard job for any OS. Look at the struggle of improving DOS/Windows 9x - finally it was better to switch to the NT line. And Apple didn't even bother, they had to ditch the old MacOS altogether rather than trying to fit in basic technologies like pre-emptive multitasking or protected memory (indeed, getting back on topic - BeOS was at one time a candidate for the replacement OS).