After pulling in $21 million and ranking number one for the weekend I am not surprised that Disney is talking sequels. My largest concern is that the script felt a bit lackluster, though I enjoyed the movie. I just didn't think that many of the actors brought their characters to life. And Trillian's role was reduced to a damsel in distress who lowered her expectations in order to find love since her beau never truly overcame his cowardice.
If they do more, I'd want to see more sarcasm and wit brought into the dialog. I'd like to see Ford be less of a tree hugger and more of a pithy saw with his comments. Zaphod and Ford were far too kind to Arthur in this version, IMO...
Saw the movie last night. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5. It was good, but not great. Funny, but not hilarious. Adventurous but not necessarily exciting. Had love interests but was not romantic. Notice a pattern? Although I have read many blasting accusations against Hollywood (usually by Americans) and blasting accusations against Americans (usually by Europeans) for the fault of this movie, I think some people are over generalizing.
There are two problems with this movie. First, rest assured there were many things right in this movie. They were fairly faithful to the books. The production quality was excellent. The books were brought to life. But the visuals had all the riveting excitement of a postcard: Pretty to look at but not at all quite like being there. Which brings me to the first problem with the movie: the script. This would include dialog and pacing. The movie just didn't sparkle. The other problem was that the actors, except for Sam Rockwell and Alan Rickman, were boring. For this I blame the director.
If you've ever watched Galaxy Quest you know that Hollywood can produce something that is both exciting and sarcastictly funny. Galaxy Quest was a great satire. And perhaps that's what HG2G was missing. I wonder if the producers were almost too reverent to be truly satirical. If it wasn't for the graphics department slipping in bits of the book would this movie have been even remotely funny? I don't believe so. Somewhere someone was holding the throttle back. The actors just didn't seem to be into their parts, except for the character of Zaphod Beeblebrox played by Sam Rockwell and the voice overs by Alan Rickman. Even the folks at IMDB were confused about the real talent of the production because both of those gentlemen weren't even listed on the front page. (Interestingly enough, both of those actors had great roles in Galaxy Quest)
Don't panic by any means. The movie isn't a travesty. It just fell a wee bit short of the mark. I'd still see it again. But don't excect it to have lasting appeal beyond the confines of HG2G fandom. When blaming somebody for this movie's short-comings don't ignorantly blame "Hollywood" or "America". There are a few red blooded buggers who are specifically responsible. As an American who finds more than a few enjoyable movies coming out of Hollywood I think you're letting those guys off easy when you overgeneralize. Let's get their names so we can make sure they're the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.;)
Being inside the head of a newly born whale as it plummets to earth is funny, but watching a graphic of it hit the ground isn't funny.
I don't know. I laughed pretty hard at that. So didn't a few guys behind me. They laughed even harder. Even my wife laughed and she's not what I would call your typical fan. Maybe we're just sick.:p
I couldn't tell by your post whether you verified that part was in 3D or not. I just saw the movie last night as well and planned on bringing 3D glasses along just to test that part out. Being a 3D aficionado I suspected the hologram was because of the obvious blue and red outlines (Nice to see Simon Jones made it to the big screen (that's the TV series 'Arthur Dent' for those not steeped in HG2G lore). Would be cool if it really was in 3D. Adds to the cheese.:)
Although I am glad to see new products come out that will nip at Apple's heels, I'm always puzzled at corporate emphasis on either style or features, or style and features, but not style and features and user experience. It is the UI on top of it's style and vast capacity that made the iPod so revolutionary. It was easy to use and made accessing thousands of songs easy as well. And don't forget it's seemless integration with iTunes, which was a none too shabby jukebox. Lastly, say what you will about DRM, but Fairplay has been the least odious of them all. I have yet to encounter the DRM in my personal use...
Now that other companies are releasing similarly featured products I wonder when they'll figure out that they need to sell the whole widget: easy to use jukebox with easy to use player and style to boot.
I don't think Apple will stay on top forever, but they do deserve the lead. Take the controversy over the Motorolla iTunes phone. Apple wants to make a phone that hooks up to one's PC/Mac and interfaces like an iPod. This means you purchase your songs or add them to iTunes and download them into your phone. You would manage playlists exactly as you do with an iPod. The phone industry wants you to purchase them for $3 a pop over their phone service directly to your phone instead. Although I like the idea of direct to phone purchase and download, I don't like the pricing structure and I'm not certain those songs can ever make it off that phone without third party hacks. MP3 makers haven't figured out how Apple's been winning the game, and now the phone companies are just as clueless.
For starters, a quarter of the world's population already has a mobile phone. That's 1.4 billion people, compared with 10 million iPods sold to date. Most of those cell-phone toters pay a monthly phone bill, making it a snap to add a music charge. Perhaps most important, wireless technology could provide access anytime, anywhere to millions of songs. "You don't have to be a genius to see that the phone will be your own portable stereo that's with you wherever you go," says Jordan Schur, co-president of Geffen Records, whose artists include Snoop Dogg and Garbage.
You may not have to be a genius to see it, but am I the only one who sees the flaw with that argument? Those billion phones in use aren't going to be able to use these new music features. That means consumers will have to buy new phones, and that means those phones are competing with iPods, iRivers, etc for a whole lot less than $3 a song.
Someone may figure it out someday, but until then none of these new toys are going to do much more than nibble at Apple's bottomline for some time. Still, I'm glad to see there's so much energy about this market out there. They should keep Apple on their toes for some time. And we all win in the long run with better products to play with.
When I first read this post's header I thought it was referring to public schools not having to help the RIAA brainwash kids to not "steal" with their propoganda programs. Alas, 'twas not the case. Now if only ISPs could tell the RIAA to take a hike.
With new legislation here coming across Bush's desk in the next little while, I'm getting a little tired of all the attention given to the RIAA and the MPAA. My brother was killed by a drunk driver five years ago. Where are the corporate sponsored programs to educate kids in public schools not to drink and drive with the hyped up press coverage to match? Where is the new federal legislation to make stiffer penalties for drunk drivers? Obviously, everybody has a cause, and I'm simplifying matters to make a point, but the overemphasis on the poor RIAA and MPAA is really odious.
I read so many anti-Bush comments on this site, and certainly Republicans like Hatch helped make this mess, but Democrats drink from the RIAA & MPAA Kool-aid too...as well as the ignorant press. All I want is a little balance.
After reading the article I'm not certain of what point the reviewer was trying to make. He is both glowing and critical of the same things. I wouldn't put too much weight on his comments because of this. Here's an example:
Sam Rockwell does a great turn as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed president of the galaxy; Mos Def is passable as Ford Prefect; while Zooey Deschanel is beguiling as Trillian
Then a few paragraphs down we get this:
Did I say characters? Hmmm. While Dent is a familiar cipher, audiences will be left clueless by Ford Prefect, bemused by Zaphod Beeblebrox and indifferent to Trillian.
Indifferent to Trillian? I thought the actress playing her was "beguiling"!?! How can an actress potray a character in a beguiling way that leaves the audience indifferent? That's almost as funny as some of Adams' turns of speech.:)
In brief, the reviewer liked the movie, but didn't like all of it. In fact, he called it a "charming mess". Having been a fan of Adams' work for over twenty years I had always been under the impression the same could be said of the books. And even Adams' own later sequels lacked the punchy humor and wit of the originals. It is hard to make lightening strike twice.
I recently downloaded the BBC's HG2G TV adaptation. Although some parts are brilliant, many parts drag and are truly awful. Translating Adams' writing style into a visual medium is bound to be difficult. Even the British couldn't get it all right.
Those are really good suggestions. Unfortunately, the bomb hidden in them, for me anyway, is the "To Do" list. I use a system similar to yours, though I use different nomenclature. My bookmark bar serves as my "To Do" list. I drag stuff up there all the time for reference later and prune the directory from time to time. Anything of real import I move to the main bookmark list under its appropriate directory/subdirectory. The problem is that I'm busy. I accumulate "To Do" bookmarks faster than I can prune them! And my time is honestly worth more to me when spent on other things like meticulously commenting and rating my thousands of MP3s (just kidding).
Since I use Google before I reference my bookmarks, I have proven over and over again that unless I can search my bookmarks I'm wasting my time keeping them. There are third party utilities that allow one to search bookmarks, but who really has time for that when searching Google is built into most decent browsers? I hear Safari 2 will offer bookmark searching built-in. I'll have to see if that works out for me, but I'll still have hundreds of bookmarks clogging things up.
For ten years now I have been waiting for a bookmark utility that checks bookmarks for last time visited then deletes any that are past a set parameter. Maybe I'm using the wrong browsers, but if I could set my browser to delete old bookmarks the way I can have mail rolled off after a certain date my bookmark lists wouldn't be nearly so useless. That way only the sites I frequent often would be in there...
Thanks for being a voice of reason. Apple hasn't removed a feature, they've battened it down so only those who need it will activate it. Incidentally, that includes me because I haven't the faintest idea what to do with either suid or sgid. I prefer Apple shutting power features off by default. As I understand them, I enable them. Wish Windows was originally setup that way. My in-laws just bought a new PC because their old one had become so compromised by viruses and malware and the local techs charged so much to clean their PC over and over again that buying a new PC was cheaper!
1. Cheap It's hard to compete with your aftermarket/used price for a new model at the capacity you list, but although non iPod 512MB flash players tend to range from $129-$199, Apple has a 512mb model at $99, 1GB at $149 and 4GB hard disk model at $199. Compared to the other players in the market, those are cheap. Otherwise, shop on eBay or at pawn shops.
2. No proprietary formats required IFAIK, most players support MP3s - even the ubiquitous iPod. These Sony players stick out like a sore thumb with their proprietary format. Of course, MP3 is a licensed format which might qualify it as a proprietary format in the minds of some so perhaps you were referring to open source OGG files?
3. No "DRM."I wonder why so many people seem to forget that iPods play MP3s. It's true that the iTunes Music Store sells DRM'd songs, playable on FairPlay(TM) licensed only players, but iPods play AIFF, WAV, MP3, and all the AAC MPEG4 audio formats. None of those formats requires DRM to play on the iPod. As for WMA players, they play non-DRM'd MP3s as well. So players matching this criteria exist as well, unless you want a pure, untainted player that cannot understand any form of DRM whatsoever - maybe those Pez players scheduled for release later this year?;)
4. Reliable, built to last, long battery life Once again, most models out there can meet these requirements. I've dropped my iPod mini and watched it bounce about and not had problems with playback. iPod shuffles have no moving parts so they meet this criteria as well, as would other flash players. I've heard good things about iRivers, etc. YMMV, but it all depends on the model, of which there are many to choose from.
5. Connects to my machine without drivers, i.e. acts like an external hard disk. Once again, models exist, such as the iPod. Even the iPod shuffle can be configured to be a USB flash drive from within iTunes. There are plenty of non-iPod players that mount as hard drives as well.
What this means is that your dream player is probably already on the market. Unless by dream player what you want is an anti-corporate, barebones player marketed on price alone. I don't know if you will find something like that without buying from Asia. OR you could build one yourself: http://www.buildmp3player.com/ Then you could stick it into any unfashionable form you see fit.
Rumor Site: What the next OS you're releasing?
Apple: OS X Liger.
Rumor Site: What's a liger?
Apple: It's pretty much our favorite OS. It's like Panther and Tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.
Rumor Site: Oooooh
What amazes me is all the grumpy posters ragging about how juvenile slashdot is EVERY year. On the SAME day. Like this is some sort of surprise. Whose the April Fool here? Honestly.
If you know slashdot is going to be "lame" today, why do you bother dropping by? Isn't it a waste of your time? You can't skip reading slashdot even one day? I can't think of a worse waste of time than visiting sites where I hate the content and trolling about how lame everything is.
Personally, I look forward to April Fools day. It's a big holiday for me and mine. And slashdot's celebration of the holiday is much appreciated.
I hope to deliver the hottest new title within the next few months. I want my two dollars!
It's a good thing the dinosaurs died off when they did. If they were around today they'd organize a lobby and push Congress to extend their existence by outlawing mammals...;)
"I've bought a ton of music/software/videos/etc/whatever specifically because I got to preview it on p2p first. They're making money off p2p! Those idiots!"
Actually, this isn't a flat out lie. I really have purchased a ton of music because I was able to preview it on p2p first. P2P is the single most important research tool I have discovered on the internet. My musical tastes have expanded, and so hasn't my legally purchased collection. I have 310 iTunes purchases since the store opened for the Mac. I have new CDs. I have new DVDs. I have P2P to thank for that. If I don't like what I hear, I delete it. If I do like what I hear, I buy it. I heard of a group called "The Postal Service". After I sampled their album with P2P I purchased it 24 hours later. Just last week I discovered "Claire Voyant" because of the internet. There's nothing by them on iTMS so I'll be ordering their most recent album off Amazon.com next week. Once again, thanks to P2P.
I have been writing Orrin Hatch (my Senator) about this very point for years. He just doesn't seem to get it. I personally would be devastated if P2P was outlawed and removed from the internet. I believe the EFF is onto something with their fee system that compensates RIAA artists the way radio compensates... Not everybody purchases music as I do, but then not every leech would be a consumer either.
Still, there is a problem out there. P2P is fairly dangerous. I won't let my teenage daughter near a P2P app. Porn is so prevalent on P2P networks. False positives, mislabeled files, etc. This fact keeps Orrin up at night. He wants to legislate my kid's safety. I just forbid her from using the apps and it works. Nevermind all the trojans for PCs out there. There is a need for a legal, safe, P2P network. I see this as a business opportunity that hasn't been met yet. Too bad people like Orrin want to legislate archaic business models for very rich, generous, companies under the guise of saving the children.
What REALLY needs to be outlawed is clearoutclub.com. Those lamers have servers listening for P2P searches and providing false hits to promote their website. When "funky weird search" and "Elephant Hat Dancing" produce jpeg and wmv ad files on 50+ servers you know the death of P2P is nigh. This is something we cannot allow. We need congress to protect P2P at all costs!:)
What are you talking about? We may not pay a TV license but we do have pledge drives three times a year. PBS, the station that usually carries your British programming, pays through the nose for that programming. They raise the funds by asking the viewers to support the station financially.
So we "put something back into the BBC" three times a year.
Re:Getting rid of the surprize factor
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IE7 Details Emerge
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As far as I understood it, Apple isn't suing the sites for what they printed. Apple is suing those three sites for access to the names/emails of the people who broke their NDAs because those sites refused to turn over the names on their own volition. The issue is centered around trade secrets and Apple's right to keep them secret in order to stay competitive vs. the rumor sites right to free speech.
Blast those scumbags! This problem is worse than you detailed. Now when I type cgiscripts.com into my URL field I get shanghaid onto a hosting service page instead. The utter gall!
I'm right there with you, mate. I had an unusual amount of bad luck when it comes to dead or stuck pixels. I am on my third LCD screen replacement for my G4 iMac "17. I still have one finicky pixel that is more off then on, and a weird gray discoloration in that pixel's area. My new G4 iBook also had pixel issues, so I had it replaced and still got a stuck pixel, but it's at the bottom and I can ignore it. Not ONE of my friends and associates has had dead pixel problems. Not one. Rather unfair, I think. LOL
Here's the deal, though. I pay a lot of money for these products, and expect a certain level of quality. I also expect to have the same good experience that others have had. However, I wouldn't switch back to the Wintel world for the life of me. First of all, they have quality control issues, too. And secondly, they don't offer the Apple experience. I've worked on both systems, PCs longer than Macs, and I still have a PC. I am simply more productive on my Macs (I have 3 of them).
Don't give up on Apple. It's people like us who keep returning lemons that alert Apple to quality issues in the first place. All those posters attached to your comment above thank you. I envy their experience, the no good bums.
As for topics being deleted, Apple's mods tend to do that when conversations devolve into "Me, too!" or griping. Start another thread on the same subject and hope that the post quality stays rational. I hear people complain about censoring all the time, but other similar threads stay up on the site. All you need is one pinhead in your thread to give Apple's mods the justification they need to yank the thread. Just my experience there for what it's worth.
Just remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.:)
You bet. These video cards can handle marathon 12 hour gaming sessions, but they're gonna break like matchsticks under the burden of running a WINDOWING system.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the last part of Blockbuster's ad campaign. My friends and I couldn't be the only ones who sat back, read "The End of Late Fees. The Start of More.", and then said, "The start of more WHAT?"
It's obvious that this is a shakedown. We had a late video, but my wife believed the ad campaign. "They don't charge late fees anymore," she'd tell me. Then I received a bill from Blockbuster for the two videos I rented. One had been returned because I didn't believe Blockbuster. One was still in it's 7 day grace period. I called the store and spoke with a manager. He assured me it was just a reminder. I had to inform him that the "reminder" claimed I had decided to keep the videos and that I would be charged for them. I could get a refund if I returned them within 30 days but be charged a $1.25 restocking fee. The odd thing was that my account hadn't been charged yet, and he could clearly see that one of the DVDs was not due yet. If I was a pushover consumer, I would have assumed that I had already been charged, blamed myself for being stupid, and left it at that, not called to check on my account.
This is criminal. They obviously plan on people forgetting about the rentals, then scare them into believing they've already blown it so they get charged fullprice for the discs. I'm glad somebody's suing them. Not only was this the most stupidly worded commercial campaign but it was the most deceptive one I have seen in a long time.
I use my radioSHARK with an iMac running OSX 10.3.7. I record talk radio and college radio station programming that is aired at inconvenient times for me. And I utilize the time shifting feature, which works wonderfully. I don't notice reception problems any different than other radios I own. My big complaint is that the software is buggy and sometimes fails to convert the temp files into listenable audio. It's sporadic. But before I turned off file vault I couldn't get any recordings to work at all.
radioSHARK records live radio in temp files and recording radio as a *.mov file until the recording is finished. Then it converts it to m4a format (since I have AAC format selected). The software simply could not convert the temp files under a file vault system (an encrypted home directory under OSX). It wouldn't even convert temp files stored outside of the encrypted home directory. I also noticed terrible skipping in the recordings it did manage to make.
Once I removed file vault these problems went away (except once the other night). I'd say one more revision of the software is needed to get this program ready for prime time.
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After pulling in $21 million and ranking number one for the weekend I am not surprised that Disney is talking sequels. My largest concern is that the script felt a bit lackluster, though I enjoyed the movie. I just didn't think that many of the actors brought their characters to life. And Trillian's role was reduced to a damsel in distress who lowered her expectations in order to find love since her beau never truly overcame his cowardice.
If they do more, I'd want to see more sarcasm and wit brought into the dialog. I'd like to see Ford be less of a tree hugger and more of a pithy saw with his comments. Zaphod and Ford were far too kind to Arthur in this version, IMO...
No! Then it would all end in tears! Terry Gilliam can't write a happy ending to save his life. LOL
Saw the movie last night. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5. It was good, but not great. Funny, but not hilarious. Adventurous but not necessarily exciting. Had love interests but was not romantic. Notice a pattern? Although I have read many blasting accusations against Hollywood (usually by Americans) and blasting accusations against Americans (usually by Europeans) for the fault of this movie, I think some people are over generalizing.
;)
There are two problems with this movie. First, rest assured there were many things right in this movie. They were fairly faithful to the books. The production quality was excellent. The books were brought to life. But the visuals had all the riveting excitement of a postcard: Pretty to look at but not at all quite like being there. Which brings me to the first problem with the movie: the script. This would include dialog and pacing. The movie just didn't sparkle. The other problem was that the actors, except for Sam Rockwell and Alan Rickman, were boring. For this I blame the director.
If you've ever watched Galaxy Quest you know that Hollywood can produce something that is both exciting and sarcastictly funny. Galaxy Quest was a great satire. And perhaps that's what HG2G was missing. I wonder if the producers were almost too reverent to be truly satirical. If it wasn't for the graphics department slipping in bits of the book would this movie have been even remotely funny? I don't believe so. Somewhere someone was holding the throttle back. The actors just didn't seem to be into their parts, except for the character of Zaphod Beeblebrox played by Sam Rockwell and the voice overs by Alan Rickman. Even the folks at IMDB were confused about the real talent of the production because both of those gentlemen weren't even listed on the front page. (Interestingly enough, both of those actors had great roles in Galaxy Quest)
Don't panic by any means. The movie isn't a travesty. It just fell a wee bit short of the mark. I'd still see it again. But don't excect it to have lasting appeal beyond the confines of HG2G fandom. When blaming somebody for this movie's short-comings don't ignorantly blame "Hollywood" or "America". There are a few red blooded buggers who are specifically responsible. As an American who finds more than a few enjoyable movies coming out of Hollywood I think you're letting those guys off easy when you overgeneralize. Let's get their names so we can make sure they're the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Being inside the head of a newly born whale as it plummets to earth is funny, but watching a graphic of it hit the ground isn't funny. I don't know. I laughed pretty hard at that. So didn't a few guys behind me. They laughed even harder. Even my wife laughed and she's not what I would call your typical fan. Maybe we're just sick. :p
I couldn't tell by your post whether you verified that part was in 3D or not. I just saw the movie last night as well and planned on bringing 3D glasses along just to test that part out. Being a 3D aficionado I suspected the hologram was because of the obvious blue and red outlines (Nice to see Simon Jones made it to the big screen (that's the TV series 'Arthur Dent' for those not steeped in HG2G lore). Would be cool if it really was in 3D. Adds to the cheese. :)
I have only one question. Does the Revolution come in an R2D2 form factor?
Now that other companies are releasing similarly featured products I wonder when they'll figure out that they need to sell the whole widget: easy to use jukebox with easy to use player and style to boot.
I don't think Apple will stay on top forever, but they do deserve the lead. Take the controversy over the Motorolla iTunes phone. Apple wants to make a phone that hooks up to one's PC/Mac and interfaces like an iPod. This means you purchase your songs or add them to iTunes and download them into your phone. You would manage playlists exactly as you do with an iPod. The phone industry wants you to purchase them for $3 a pop over their phone service directly to your phone instead. Although I like the idea of direct to phone purchase and download, I don't like the pricing structure and I'm not certain those songs can ever make it off that phone without third party hacks. MP3 makers haven't figured out how Apple's been winning the game, and now the phone companies are just as clueless.
From a Business Week article:
You may not have to be a genius to see it, but am I the only one who sees the flaw with that argument? Those billion phones in use aren't going to be able to use these new music features. That means consumers will have to buy new phones, and that means those phones are competing with iPods, iRivers, etc for a whole lot less than $3 a song.Someone may figure it out someday, but until then none of these new toys are going to do much more than nibble at Apple's bottomline for some time. Still, I'm glad to see there's so much energy about this market out there. They should keep Apple on their toes for some time. And we all win in the long run with better products to play with.
With new legislation here coming across Bush's desk in the next little while, I'm getting a little tired of all the attention given to the RIAA and the MPAA. My brother was killed by a drunk driver five years ago. Where are the corporate sponsored programs to educate kids in public schools not to drink and drive with the hyped up press coverage to match? Where is the new federal legislation to make stiffer penalties for drunk drivers? Obviously, everybody has a cause, and I'm simplifying matters to make a point, but the overemphasis on the poor RIAA and MPAA is really odious.
I read so many anti-Bush comments on this site, and certainly Republicans like Hatch helped make this mess, but Democrats drink from the RIAA & MPAA Kool-aid too...as well as the ignorant press. All I want is a little balance.
He wasn't focusing on being beaten. He was responding to a shareholder's question about what he thought of MSFT's upcoming Longhorn. RTA
Sam Rockwell does a great turn as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed president of the galaxy; Mos Def is passable as Ford Prefect; while Zooey Deschanel is beguiling as Trillian
Then a few paragraphs down we get this:
Did I say characters? Hmmm. While Dent is a familiar cipher, audiences will be left clueless by Ford Prefect, bemused by Zaphod Beeblebrox and indifferent to Trillian.
Indifferent to Trillian? I thought the actress playing her was "beguiling"!?! How can an actress potray a character in a beguiling way that leaves the audience indifferent? That's almost as funny as some of Adams' turns of speech. :)
In brief, the reviewer liked the movie, but didn't like all of it. In fact, he called it a "charming mess". Having been a fan of Adams' work for over twenty years I had always been under the impression the same could be said of the books. And even Adams' own later sequels lacked the punchy humor and wit of the originals. It is hard to make lightening strike twice.
I recently downloaded the BBC's HG2G TV adaptation. Although some parts are brilliant, many parts drag and are truly awful. Translating Adams' writing style into a visual medium is bound to be difficult. Even the British couldn't get it all right.
Those are really good suggestions. Unfortunately, the bomb hidden in them, for me anyway, is the "To Do" list. I use a system similar to yours, though I use different nomenclature. My bookmark bar serves as my "To Do" list. I drag stuff up there all the time for reference later and prune the directory from time to time. Anything of real import I move to the main bookmark list under its appropriate directory/subdirectory. The problem is that I'm busy. I accumulate "To Do" bookmarks faster than I can prune them! And my time is honestly worth more to me when spent on other things like meticulously commenting and rating my thousands of MP3s (just kidding).
Since I use Google before I reference my bookmarks, I have proven over and over again that unless I can search my bookmarks I'm wasting my time keeping them. There are third party utilities that allow one to search bookmarks, but who really has time for that when searching Google is built into most decent browsers? I hear Safari 2 will offer bookmark searching built-in. I'll have to see if that works out for me, but I'll still have hundreds of bookmarks clogging things up.
For ten years now I have been waiting for a bookmark utility that checks bookmarks for last time visited then deletes any that are past a set parameter. Maybe I'm using the wrong browsers, but if I could set my browser to delete old bookmarks the way I can have mail rolled off after a certain date my bookmark lists wouldn't be nearly so useless. That way only the sites I frequent often would be in there...
Any suggestions?
Thanks for being a voice of reason. Apple hasn't removed a feature, they've battened it down so only those who need it will activate it. Incidentally, that includes me because I haven't the faintest idea what to do with either suid or sgid. I prefer Apple shutting power features off by default. As I understand them, I enable them. Wish Windows was originally setup that way. My in-laws just bought a new PC because their old one had become so compromised by viruses and malware and the local techs charged so much to clean their PC over and over again that buying a new PC was cheaper!
1. Cheap It's hard to compete with your aftermarket/used price for a new model at the capacity you list, but although non iPod 512MB flash players tend to range from $129-$199, Apple has a 512mb model at $99, 1GB at $149 and 4GB hard disk model at $199. Compared to the other players in the market, those are cheap. Otherwise, shop on eBay or at pawn shops.
2. No proprietary formats required IFAIK, most players support MP3s - even the ubiquitous iPod. These Sony players stick out like a sore thumb with their proprietary format. Of course, MP3 is a licensed format which might qualify it as a proprietary format in the minds of some so perhaps you were referring to open source OGG files?
3. No "DRM."I wonder why so many people seem to forget that iPods play MP3s. It's true that the iTunes Music Store sells DRM'd songs, playable on FairPlay(TM) licensed only players, but iPods play AIFF, WAV, MP3, and all the AAC MPEG4 audio formats. None of those formats requires DRM to play on the iPod. As for WMA players, they play non-DRM'd MP3s as well. So players matching this criteria exist as well, unless you want a pure, untainted player that cannot understand any form of DRM whatsoever - maybe those Pez players scheduled for release later this year? ;)
4. Reliable, built to last, long battery life Once again, most models out there can meet these requirements. I've dropped my iPod mini and watched it bounce about and not had problems with playback. iPod shuffles have no moving parts so they meet this criteria as well, as would other flash players. I've heard good things about iRivers, etc. YMMV, but it all depends on the model, of which there are many to choose from.
5. Connects to my machine without drivers, i.e. acts like an external hard disk. Once again, models exist, such as the iPod. Even the iPod shuffle can be configured to be a USB flash drive from within iTunes. There are plenty of non-iPod players that mount as hard drives as well.
What this means is that your dream player is probably already on the market. Unless by dream player what you want is an anti-corporate, barebones player marketed on price alone. I don't know if you will find something like that without buying from Asia. OR you could build one yourself: http://www.buildmp3player.com/ Then you could stick it into any unfashionable form you see fit.
Rumor Site: What the next OS you're releasing? Apple: OS X Liger. Rumor Site: What's a liger? Apple: It's pretty much our favorite OS. It's like Panther and Tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic. Rumor Site: Oooooh
What amazes me is all the grumpy posters ragging about how juvenile slashdot is EVERY year. On the SAME day. Like this is some sort of surprise. Whose the April Fool here? Honestly.
If you know slashdot is going to be "lame" today, why do you bother dropping by? Isn't it a waste of your time? You can't skip reading slashdot even one day? I can't think of a worse waste of time than visiting sites where I hate the content and trolling about how lame everything is.
Personally, I look forward to April Fools day. It's a big holiday for me and mine. And slashdot's celebration of the holiday is much appreciated.
I hope to deliver the hottest new title within the next few months. I want my two dollars!
It's a good thing the dinosaurs died off when they did. If they were around today they'd organize a lobby and push Congress to extend their existence by outlawing mammals... ;)
Actually, this isn't a flat out lie. I really have purchased a ton of music because I was able to preview it on p2p first. P2P is the single most important research tool I have discovered on the internet. My musical tastes have expanded, and so hasn't my legally purchased collection. I have 310 iTunes purchases since the store opened for the Mac. I have new CDs. I have new DVDs. I have P2P to thank for that. If I don't like what I hear, I delete it. If I do like what I hear, I buy it. I heard of a group called "The Postal Service". After I sampled their album with P2P I purchased it 24 hours later. Just last week I discovered "Claire Voyant" because of the internet. There's nothing by them on iTMS so I'll be ordering their most recent album off Amazon.com next week. Once again, thanks to P2P.
I have been writing Orrin Hatch (my Senator) about this very point for years. He just doesn't seem to get it. I personally would be devastated if P2P was outlawed and removed from the internet. I believe the EFF is onto something with their fee system that compensates RIAA artists the way radio compensates... Not everybody purchases music as I do, but then not every leech would be a consumer either.
Still, there is a problem out there. P2P is fairly dangerous. I won't let my teenage daughter near a P2P app. Porn is so prevalent on P2P networks. False positives, mislabeled files, etc. This fact keeps Orrin up at night. He wants to legislate my kid's safety. I just forbid her from using the apps and it works. Nevermind all the trojans for PCs out there. There is a need for a legal, safe, P2P network. I see this as a business opportunity that hasn't been met yet. Too bad people like Orrin want to legislate archaic business models for very rich, generous, companies under the guise of saving the children.
What REALLY needs to be outlawed is clearoutclub.com. Those lamers have servers listening for P2P searches and providing false hits to promote their website. When "funky weird search" and "Elephant Hat Dancing" produce jpeg and wmv ad files on 50+ servers you know the death of P2P is nigh. This is something we cannot allow. We need congress to protect P2P at all costs! :)
Ask the ARIA.
What are you talking about? We may not pay a TV license but we do have pledge drives three times a year. PBS, the station that usually carries your British programming, pays through the nose for that programming. They raise the funds by asking the viewers to support the station financially. So we "put something back into the BBC" three times a year.
As far as I understood it, Apple isn't suing the sites for what they printed. Apple is suing those three sites for access to the names/emails of the people who broke their NDAs because those sites refused to turn over the names on their own volition. The issue is centered around trade secrets and Apple's right to keep them secret in order to stay competitive vs. the rumor sites right to free speech.
Blast those scumbags! This problem is worse than you detailed. Now when I type cgiscripts.com into my URL field I get shanghaid onto a hosting service page instead. The utter gall!
Here's the deal, though. I pay a lot of money for these products, and expect a certain level of quality. I also expect to have the same good experience that others have had. However, I wouldn't switch back to the Wintel world for the life of me. First of all, they have quality control issues, too. And secondly, they don't offer the Apple experience. I've worked on both systems, PCs longer than Macs, and I still have a PC. I am simply more productive on my Macs (I have 3 of them).
Don't give up on Apple. It's people like us who keep returning lemons that alert Apple to quality issues in the first place. All those posters attached to your comment above thank you. I envy their experience, the no good bums.
As for topics being deleted, Apple's mods tend to do that when conversations devolve into "Me, too!" or griping. Start another thread on the same subject and hope that the post quality stays rational. I hear people complain about censoring all the time, but other similar threads stay up on the site. All you need is one pinhead in your thread to give Apple's mods the justification they need to yank the thread. Just my experience there for what it's worth.
Just remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. :)
Right. That would be Longhorn that does that...
It's obvious that this is a shakedown. We had a late video, but my wife believed the ad campaign. "They don't charge late fees anymore," she'd tell me. Then I received a bill from Blockbuster for the two videos I rented. One had been returned because I didn't believe Blockbuster. One was still in it's 7 day grace period. I called the store and spoke with a manager. He assured me it was just a reminder. I had to inform him that the "reminder" claimed I had decided to keep the videos and that I would be charged for them. I could get a refund if I returned them within 30 days but be charged a $1.25 restocking fee. The odd thing was that my account hadn't been charged yet, and he could clearly see that one of the DVDs was not due yet. If I was a pushover consumer, I would have assumed that I had already been charged, blamed myself for being stupid, and left it at that, not called to check on my account.
This is criminal. They obviously plan on people forgetting about the rentals, then scare them into believing they've already blown it so they get charged fullprice for the discs. I'm glad somebody's suing them. Not only was this the most stupidly worded commercial campaign but it was the most deceptive one I have seen in a long time.
radioSHARK records live radio in temp files and recording radio as a *.mov file until the recording is finished. Then it converts it to m4a format (since I have AAC format selected). The software simply could not convert the temp files under a file vault system (an encrypted home directory under OSX). It wouldn't even convert temp files stored outside of the encrypted home directory. I also noticed terrible skipping in the recordings it did manage to make.
Once I removed file vault these problems went away (except once the other night). I'd say one more revision of the software is needed to get this program ready for prime time.