Some soccer mom in her big ass SUV, talking on her cell phone while putting on makeup and useing one foot to steer and the other to engage in Day Trading while she watches her dashboard to find out hwo her stocks are doing and to decide whether or not life is worth living.
GeForce 440, Athlon XP1700 and Abit KR733, none of them exactly bottom of the barrell parts. And all of them except the processor, replacements of even worse technology.
In almost all the examples, the technology described has not been "surpassed" it's that some areas where it was once used, have had new innovations take it's place. The whole best tool for the job thing.
And just because it's newer, faster and smarter doesn't make it the better tool for the job. Despite how easy it is to use my magnetic tip power screwdriver to take out components from a computer case, it's much easier to use a manual screwdriver because it's thinner.
Yeah, I took a quick look at the HIG and I think that's probably the most reasonable explination. You can find the HIG here but here are some of the more relevant quotes on contextual menus:
"A contextual menu provides convenient access to often-used commands associated with an item."
"Include a small subset of the most commonly used commands in the appropriate context. For example, Edit menu commands should appear in the contextual menu for highlighted text, but not a Save or a Print command."
In fact, I just noticed that they put the back and forward menu commands in the history menu, which does seem to suggest this is the most likely reason why it isn't there, as a user doesn't usualy associate a history command with the current page.
I guess it would be nice to have, but I never got used to it so I couldn't say. You might also be able to use something like USB Overdrive to define an action for a middle click to go back or something (I assume you probably have a scroll wheel if you have 2 buttons). It's worth a shot.
Expose.... very useful for switching between windows and apps when doing research or coding
User switching.... I don't use it, but I know plent of people who do use it, and actualy it's really nice to work with when I'm doing some system work on a user's computer and they're not arround at the moment to save their work.
Contrast between windows.... no problem for me. Active window has bold titles and colored widgets, other windows are dimmer and the widgets are grey.
File Navigation.... um where can't I get to? I can go anywhere I damn well please. I may not be able to always write there, but that's what root is for.
Textured metal windows... asthetics, if you don't like it, change it. Or heaven forbid, install your own window manager. Personaly I like it better than the old Aqua interface. Of course, if you really don't like it, there's this little white button in the top right corner of your finder window. Click it. Enjoy.
The side bar can be turned off
So can the control bar at the top of the window.
In alll, you're griping over nothing. If you didn't think it was worth it, don't buy it. Obviously the old system worked well enough for you.
Originaly apple used to impliment this feature via something called Mouse keys, where you could use the keyboard (specificaly the numeric keypad) to move the mouse pointer arround the screen, and click and drag etc etc. More recently (10.2 or thereabouts) they've implimented direct to menu keyboard navigation, and they have kept the keyboard access. These options can be found under system preferences -> universal access.
Apple has also added the ability to create your own navigation shortcuts as well.
I think the apple idea of contextual menus is a bit different from the windows idea. Under the apple system, it seems to be a matter of actions that are in "context" with the item you are clicking on. In the case of view source, save and print, those are all actions that are applicable to the page itself, they are actions performed on the page. Whereas back, and forward are prowser actions as a whole, they are not actions to be perfromed on the page.
The problem with security, is 90% of the time, you don't know if it's working. We haven't had another attack on american soil since 9/11. Does that mean that the security works? Or does that mean no other attacks were planned for the immediate future? Is the current level of security sufficient? Or is t a mere token security that just hasn't been tested yet?
While we can guess, and preform some tests, there is no way to really answer these questions.
Part of this is very dependant on how the system is used. Example, does it active to trace a specific individual (and as such should fall under the jurisdiction of warrents) or is it passive, waiting to flag words (maybe assasinate, or kidde porn or whatever). If it's passive, how is it evaluated? Does it look for trends (i.e. one search for kiddie porn throws up a flag, but multiple searches over 6 months invites closer scrutiny). How is the information examined? Does it only look for specific catch words, or does it evaluate the catch phrases and then the associated locations that are accessed? i.e if you type in kiddie porn, now the system is watching your connection, but if you start accessing sites like law sites, maybe research departments at universities etc it drops the monitoring? The idea in and of itself is not evil, it's the implimentation that needs to be considered.
Again? Hell I've already dumped an additional $700 into this thing on top of the thousand some odd I paid for it originaly. And the damn thing is only a year and a half old.
I can remember the last time I saw a blue screen. It was while I was burning a music CD. No wait, I think that happened before it crashed while I was playing Halo. Nope wait a minute, that happened before it blue screened on an attempt to install the Nimo codecs.
Not to mention the almost daily crashes of applications (which granted don't take the machine down but do piss me off to no end)
So yeah... MS is a ways to go yet in terms of stability.
Actualy, I think it's just $7.95 more expensive. That and you have the piece of mind knowing that you won't miss out on the next virus or worm, and that's gotta be worth $7.95 to anyone.
Theoreticaly, if the phone booth said "All calls from this booth will be recorded" they might be able to record since you have been notified about it, and still chose to use the phone. Much like the "These premises protected buy closed circuit cameras."
suppose you didn't use a PUBLIC computer to conduct your activities.
What happens if I happen to install a key loger on a public computer, and I start mining people's logins and passwords to financial institutions. Wouldn't you want them to be able to connect my face with this crime after I flushed all the money out of your accounts and then ran a couple over drafts for fun?
Odd... see I can run my software updates from the command line too on my OS X box... but then, by default, it will also check automagicaly for me every week. Of course, I can change that setting in the system update preferences. And I can do all sorts of things, make it update every time I log in, every day, every hour, every 20 minutes. I can even set it to never update unless I explicitly tell it too. All on my "proprietary OS"
I have to say I disagree. I just installed Suse 9 a few days ago, and it's not quite as nice as it could be. It's certainly vastly improved over the days of RedHat 3, but it's not there yet. First problem I ran into had to do with that fact that I was doing an FTP install. The installer didn't load any network modules, I had to do that by hand.
Ok, not a problem, just click on load network modules and... oh, I need to know what model NIC I have, ok it's a RealTek and oh... which specific model... um... I don't know, let's see ok is the 9XX8 one... enter module arguments? What are those? Maybe if I just hit OK... nope, load failed. Hmmm.
It was eventualy a matter of trying all the RealTek drives untill one of them loaded without arguments.
But now I was on to the install, should have been clear sailing right? Not so. Making partions on hdg, and a mount on hdh. Well I want to preserve my windows install, and that was on my second hard drive, so that looks OK. But if I didn't know how linux lables disks hda, hdb, hdc etc I wouldn't have known what to do there or if my settings were right.
So it installs, and now I'm at the configuration screen. Let's see, auto detecting network adapters........ No, I don't have a D-Link NIC, I have a RealTek. That's ok, I'll just manualy select the driver.... um.... or not, the driver I selected before for the installer program isn't there. OK let's just go with D-Link and see what happens.
Network test, ok.... failed, well that isn't good, but maybe I need to install the specific drivers for my card.
Ok, the rest is standard setup, log in, just for fun see if I can connect to the net and lo and behold I can. Well that's odd. Oh well. Let's see time to set some settings, how are the network setting set up... hmm, need to be in administrator mode, enter admin password, ok... um... to use Apache, you must first install the Apache packages, click OK to install?... ok, I didn't want to do anything with apache, all I want to do is look at my network settings... click OK and could not install Apache packages... ok now what?
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You see, like I said, it's not horrible, but it's certainly not better than most systems. I'd say it's on par with windows.
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Some soccer mom in her big ass SUV, talking on her cell phone while putting on makeup and useing one foot to steer and the other to engage in Day Trading while she watches her dashboard to find out hwo her stocks are doing and to decide whether or not life is worth living.
GeForce 440, Athlon XP1700 and Abit KR733, none of them exactly bottom of the barrell parts. And all of them except the processor, replacements of even worse technology.
But you can't be angsty and geeky and goth without having a room in a dank dark basement
Because BKAC errors are cross platform.
In almost all the examples, the technology described has not been "surpassed" it's that some areas where it was once used, have had new innovations take it's place. The whole best tool for the job thing.
And just because it's newer, faster and smarter doesn't make it the better tool for the job. Despite how easy it is to use my magnetic tip power screwdriver to take out components from a computer case, it's much easier to use a manual screwdriver because it's thinner.
Why in the world would you ever want to date a woman who chooses people based on the fucking watch they wear?
Yeah, I took a quick look at the HIG and I think that's probably the most reasonable explination. You can find the HIG here but here are some of the more relevant quotes on contextual menus:
"A contextual menu provides convenient access to often-used commands associated with an item."
"Include a small subset of the most commonly used commands in the appropriate context. For example, Edit menu commands should appear in the contextual menu for highlighted text, but not a Save or a Print command."
In fact, I just noticed that they put the back and forward menu commands in the history menu, which does seem to suggest this is the most likely reason why it isn't there, as a user doesn't usualy associate a history command with the current page.
I guess it would be nice to have, but I never got used to it so I couldn't say. You might also be able to use something like USB Overdrive to define an action for a middle click to go back or something (I assume you probably have a scroll wheel if you have 2 buttons). It's worth a shot.
Double my ram.... nope
Expose.... very useful for switching between windows and apps when doing research or coding
User switching.... I don't use it, but I know plent of people who do use it, and actualy it's really nice to work with when I'm doing some system work on a user's computer and they're not arround at the moment to save their work.
Contrast between windows.... no problem for me. Active window has bold titles and colored widgets, other windows are dimmer and the widgets are grey.
File Navigation.... um where can't I get to? I can go anywhere I damn well please. I may not be able to always write there, but that's what root is for.
Textured metal windows... asthetics, if you don't like it, change it. Or heaven forbid, install your own window manager. Personaly I like it better than the old Aqua interface. Of course, if you really don't like it, there's this little white button in the top right corner of your finder window. Click it. Enjoy.
The side bar can be turned off
So can the control bar at the top of the window.
In alll, you're griping over nothing. If you didn't think it was worth it, don't buy it. Obviously the old system worked well enough for you.
Originaly apple used to impliment this feature via something called Mouse keys, where you could use the keyboard (specificaly the numeric keypad) to move the mouse pointer arround the screen, and click and drag etc etc. More recently (10.2 or thereabouts) they've implimented direct to menu keyboard navigation, and they have kept the keyboard access. These options can be found under system preferences -> universal access.
Apple has also added the ability to create your own navigation shortcuts as well.
I think the apple idea of contextual menus is a bit different from the windows idea. Under the apple system, it seems to be a matter of actions that are in "context" with the item you are clicking on. In the case of view source, save and print, those are all actions that are applicable to the page itself, they are actions performed on the page. Whereas back, and forward are prowser actions as a whole, they are not actions to be perfromed on the page.
The problem with security, is 90% of the time, you don't know if it's working. We haven't had another attack on american soil since 9/11. Does that mean that the security works? Or does that mean no other attacks were planned for the immediate future? Is the current level of security sufficient? Or is t a mere token security that just hasn't been tested yet?
While we can guess, and preform some tests, there is no way to really answer these questions.
Part of this is very dependant on how the system is used. Example, does it active to trace a specific individual (and as such should fall under the jurisdiction of warrents) or is it passive, waiting to flag words (maybe assasinate, or kidde porn or whatever). If it's passive, how is it evaluated? Does it look for trends (i.e. one search for kiddie porn throws up a flag, but multiple searches over 6 months invites closer scrutiny). How is the information examined? Does it only look for specific catch words, or does it evaluate the catch phrases and then the associated locations that are accessed? i.e if you type in kiddie porn, now the system is watching your connection, but if you start accessing sites like law sites, maybe research departments at universities etc it drops the monitoring? The idea in and of itself is not evil, it's the implimentation that needs to be considered.
Again? Hell I've already dumped an additional $700 into this thing on top of the thousand some odd I paid for it originaly. And the damn thing is only a year and a half old.
I can remember the last time I saw a blue screen. It was while I was burning a music CD. No wait, I think that happened before it crashed while I was playing Halo. Nope wait a minute, that happened before it blue screened on an attempt to install the Nimo codecs.
Not to mention the almost daily crashes of applications (which granted don't take the machine down but do piss me off to no end)
So yeah... MS is a ways to go yet in terms of stability.
Actualy, I think it's just $7.95 more expensive. That and you have the piece of mind knowing that you won't miss out on the next virus or worm, and that's gotta be worth $7.95 to anyone.
Actualy, that's worked for a while now.
Theoreticaly, if the phone booth said "All calls from this booth will be recorded" they might be able to record since you have been notified about it, and still chose to use the phone. Much like the "These premises protected buy closed circuit cameras."
suppose you didn't use a PUBLIC computer to conduct your activities.
What happens if I happen to install a key loger on a public computer, and I start mining people's logins and passwords to financial institutions. Wouldn't you want them to be able to connect my face with this crime after I flushed all the money out of your accounts and then ran a couple over drafts for fun?
OS X will auto discover it yes, but OS X does not connect (does not take IP information) from any network that you don't tell it to.
I think the point is, you had to be bothered with setting up the machine to mantain itself. OS X users don't have to. It does it already.
Odd... see I can run my software updates from the command line too on my OS X box... but then, by default, it will also check automagicaly for me every week. Of course, I can change that setting in the system update preferences. And I can do all sorts of things, make it update every time I log in, every day, every hour, every 20 minutes. I can even set it to never update unless I explicitly tell it too. All on my "proprietary OS"
I have to say I disagree. I just installed Suse 9 a few days ago, and it's not quite as nice as it could be. It's certainly vastly improved over the days of RedHat 3, but it's not there yet. First problem I ran into had to do with that fact that I was doing an FTP install. The installer didn't load any network modules, I had to do that by hand.
Ok, not a problem, just click on load network modules and... oh, I need to know what model NIC I have, ok it's a RealTek and oh... which specific model... um... I don't know, let's see ok is the 9XX8 one... enter module arguments? What are those? Maybe if I just hit OK... nope, load failed. Hmmm.
It was eventualy a matter of trying all the RealTek drives untill one of them loaded without arguments.
But now I was on to the install, should have been clear sailing right? Not so. Making partions on hdg, and a mount on hdh. Well I want to preserve my windows install, and that was on my second hard drive, so that looks OK. But if I didn't know how linux lables disks hda, hdb, hdc etc I wouldn't have known what to do there or if my settings were right.
So it installs, and now I'm at the configuration screen. Let's see, auto detecting network adapters........ No, I don't have a D-Link NIC, I have a RealTek. That's ok, I'll just manualy select the driver.... um.... or not, the driver I selected before for the installer program isn't there. OK let's just go with D-Link and see what happens.
Network test, ok.... failed, well that isn't good, but maybe I need to install the specific drivers for my card.
Ok, the rest is standard setup, log in, just for fun see if I can connect to the net and lo and behold I can. Well that's odd. Oh well. Let's see time to set some settings, how are the network setting set up... hmm, need to be in administrator mode, enter admin password, ok... um... to use Apache, you must first install the Apache packages, click OK to install?... ok, I didn't want to do anything with apache, all I want to do is look at my network settings... click OK and could not install Apache packages... ok now what?
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You see, like I said, it's not horrible, but it's certainly not better than most systems. I'd say it's on par with windows.
What are the chances your house catches fire? Probably lower than the chance of a laptop failing. Why wouldn't you buy insurance for your laptop?
The G4 when it first recieved it's Super Computer status. Apple ran a few ads the the effect.
He's probably right, because let's face it. Most slashdotters are not Most people.