On the top of every page of Slashdot comments is "The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way."
Yes, but that's not true simply because they assert it.
It may be true; it may not. I don't know enough US law to tell. But if the law says that Slashdot may be held responsible, then I doubt any amount of disclaimer will prevent them from being sued. Sad, but true.
I'm the reverse: I use Metallifizer to get the metal look on everything I can!
Result: all apps seem to have the new recessed widgets apart from iTunes. Perhaps it's the only one which doesn't use the system widgets.
I'm not convinced by the new ones yet. I'm not sure I like the idea of recessed widgets anyway, and this particular design just looks awkward and hacked-on.
The most significant benefit, I think, is that I got to re-learn how to type and get rid of some bad habits I could never shake.
This is certainly a significant factor; maybe the significant factor in the increased comfort of Dvorak.
I started learning Dvorak, and got quite far, but the number of QWERTY keyboards I found myself using made me rethink. But like you, when I tried Dvorak I also stepped back and thought about how I type, and was able to use all of that when I went back to QWERTY, so that my typing is much more comfortable than it was.
For example, I'd toyed with touch-typing before, but at that point I learned it properly. I also looked at my hand positions; the touch-type positions I'd seen for the left hand felt quite unnatural, so I changed (using middle finger for RDX instead of EDC, for example), and like you ensured I used the right Shift key.
Later on, I had a small right palm strain, and found myself looking again at how I used my hands. (Stop sniggering at the back!) I found that my left hand was pretty much stationary, but my right was forever leaping between alphabetical keys, cursor keys, numeric keypad and mouse. As a result, I learned to mouse left-handed (I said stop sniggering!), which gives a much better balance of hand use for me. (Actually, I found left-handed mousing very easy to learn.)
The important thing is to think: look at what your hands are actually having to do, and think about how to improve things. This should help most folk who have problems, especially if you do it before they get too bad.
True. But conversely, it also lowers the barrier to switching!
Part of the problem is unfamiliarity; the thought of having to relearn all your favourite apps and habits. If people are already using open-source apps on Windows, then switching will be that much less painful. If it can be made desirable in other ways, then this could be a big win.
Oddly enough, that's my exact choice, too! With IE a distant fourth.
And no, accurate rendering isn't the only important part of a browser, otherwise we wouldn't have fine control over cookies/popups/images, download managers, bookmark management, tabbed browsing, and many other features.
And even `accurate' rendering still allows much leeway for elegance and consistency.
Those are some reasons why I currently use OmniWeb in preference to Chimera - though at the latter's current rate of development, I expect it to overtake OmniWeb before too long.
why would corporations be uptight about their sales info getting pushed out to a wider audience?
For the same reason that record companies are scared by P2P sharing, the internet, and the possibility of circuventing their restrictions: control. Companies are just control freaks. It's all about control.
If you have Broadband, fine; but if you have a slow and/or expensive net connection, as most people do (here in the UK at least), then that spam is still costing you time and money being downloaded, whether you end up seeing it or not.
A much better solution is one implemented by your ISP. For example, mine uses Brightmail, which screens out about 90% of my email before it gets near me (and not a single false positive). I suspect that ISP-level solution will become progressively more important as spam levels increase.
Of course, client-level screening will still work well as a supplement to ISP-level services.
First, I'd like to disagree with what many folks have said. Science fiction is not like ordinary fiction. I've read good SF that's lousy fiction; I've also read stuff billed as SF which wasn't, even though it made good fiction. Of course, SF is better if it's good fiction as well, but it's not vital. For example, SF benefits from realistic, subtle characterisation, but some of the great SF works have paper-thin, ludicrous characters, and they still work. Why? Because of the ideas.
IMO, SF is about ideas. They don't have to be about hard science, though many of the best ones are. They don't have to be physically possible, though again they often are. They don't even have to be fully comprehensible. They only have to be interesting and imaginative, and worked through with the other prerequisite: logic.
Good SF, like good humour, takes an idea and works through the consequences logically. It asks "What if?", and then goes on to tell us. This is where I think it diverges from fantasy; fantasy isn't interested in the consequences of the initial idea, merely using it as a device on which to hang a story. In SF, the plot is bound up with the idea itself. Some of the best SF takes the idea to its ultimate extreme; this may present us with a cautionary tale or dire warning, or conversely hopes or goals.
Some good SF uses the consequence of that idea to tell us about ourselves; the differences from the world of the story highlight aspects of our own world. Some great SF uses it to discuss the nature of the universe, of time, perception or reality itself. But none of these are essential. As I said, to me the essence of good SF is simply a good idea, followed through logically.
To take a few examples: I don't consider Star Wars to be real SF; it might make great fiction, but all the SF trappings are merely devices to tell a story that could be told just as well, though less spectacularly, in other ways. OTOH, I do consider The Truman Show to be great SF, for the sheer audacity of the central idea, and the wonderful logic with which it's followed through. I count some Star Trek episodes as SF; many not (though not all of those are bad stories). Blade Runner isn't good SF because it features androids; it's great SF because it uses them to ask questions about what it's like to be an android, how we develop emotions, and whether we can trust our memories.
And yet Apple is more open. I speak from personal experience here: I had a minor problem with one of the low-level parts of Mac OS X. I'm no OS hacker, just a user who's done some C work, but I was able to find the relevant bit of Darwin, download the source, play around with it until I got it working, and then contact and work with one of Apple's engineers. I'm told my fix will be in Mac OS X 10.3. How responsive is that?!
Yes, Apple are a large corporation. They're not perfect; they don't always do things I approve of, or that would personally benefit me the most. But they're improving, and IMO they have by far the best combination of openness and usability there is. So I'm happy to stick with them.
This isn't out of personal animosity towards M$ (I've never owned a PC), nor ignorance (I've been involved with many other non-Windows platforms). In some ways I think M$ has given all corporations a bad name. I wish people were able to consider Apple fairly, free of political (and geekiness) concerns.
I think you're missing the point, which is that as well as meeting the current requirements, refactored code is probably much easier to change to fit the next set of requirements too. At least, that's how it should be...
Most people think of a PDA as a tiny gadget for holding your address book, schedule, and very little else. So although my Psion Series 5mx* fits in my pocket, I tend not to call it a `PDA', as it's far more powerful than that. (`Pocket computer' is a better description.)
And yes, I do make rather good use of it. As well as the usual agenda/address book/notepad/games, I can do all my email on it (via mobile phone when not at home), route planning and GPS mapping, along with coding in Perl, Java, and its own built-in language; and play games like Infocom adventures, crosswords, and even a Doom engine; plus it has several hundred MBs of books, TomeRaider files and other reference works like the IMDB. I can view PDFs and pictures, handle zip files, and use FTP and Opera. But my most-used app is an off-line reader (OLR) for the CIX BBS, which I use to download and read messages and compose and upload replies - in my case, several hundred messages per day, maintaining a messagebase of around 60MB. (Disclaimer: I'm a co-author.) And all this with a touch-typeable keyboard and battery life of 20 hours or so.
(* It's a shame more people didn't realise their full potential, or they'd still be making them...:( )
I could do much of that on my desktop machine, but the convenience and time-saving of having it all with me on the train, on holiday, or just out and about, is something I couldn't be without.
Erm, yes, that's exactly it: I'm bewildered by people's reaction, at a loss as to what to think or say about it, perplexed and confused by it. I hope you'll agree I was using the word correctly?!:)
(I'm not a member of CaRP (the Campaign for Real Pedantry) for nothing, you know!)
Thanks for the link. I'm in the UK, so I've missed out on the switcher ads, and didn't understand all this huge fuss about her.
And now I've seen the ad, I'm still completely non-plussed!
She's just a student, talking to camera. Admittedly, she's not bad looking. And she may reinforce a few of our stereotypes of Americans*. But really, what's all the fuss about?
(* This isn't ignorant prejudice, BTW - I've just got back from two weeks in California, so I know the stereotypes are true:)
You might not even need to download any software. I got a wireless, optical wheel mouse, and it was working within seconds of me plugging it in; no downloads, no drivers, it Just Worked -- support for two buttons and a scroll wheel is built into OS X.
(I did end up downloading a driver, in fact, so I could assign the third button, but without that I wouldn't have bothered.)
Quick summary: there are two different versions of the firmware in the DVD drive. Early drives had version 1, where the region setting was purely in software; a tool such as Region X can then reset the region as many times as you like.
But newer drives (such as the one in my 2-year-old G4) have version 2, where the region setting is controlled by the drive's firmware, and there's no way for software to work around it.
The solution is to find version 1 for your drive, and rewrite its firmware; the links above show you how. The process is a little scary, and risky (worst case: you can end up with a completely useless drive), but it worked fine for me, and now I can change region as often as I want!
The problem is when they expect to use them IN the airplane.
Why? What's intrinsically worse about someone speaking on a mobile than someone speaking to the person next to them?
Of course, some people shout into their phones, use loud and annoying ringtones, or are inconsiderate in other ways. But then many people are just as inconsiderate on aircraft, without the need for any artificial aid.
I speak as someone who has a mobile, and who does use it on public transport occasionally, but tries to do so considerately, speaks quietly, uses the vibrating alarm and so answers before anyone even hears the ringtone, and refrains at all costs from saying "I'M ON THE TRAIN!" Should I be banned too?
I'm a little concerned by the number of posters saying they much prefer dead-tree editions. Not because there's anything wrong with that, but by the implication that no-one else should or could prefer them either, or that there's therefore no market for them, or even that they're worried ebooks will swiftly lead to the elimination of dead-tree editions altogether.
Clearly, none of these are true. Many people like to read ebooks; I'm one. Enough people are buying them to keep sites like Fictionwise going. And yet dead-tree books aren't going away; each format has its own advantages and disadvantages - the important thing is for people to have the choice.
Personally, I much prefer an (open) electronic format. I can keep a library on my palmtop, taking up no extra physical space at all, and have access to reading matter and reference material whether at home, in my lunch hour, on the train, on holiday, or wherever. I can search, cut-and-paste quotations, and easily use long-term bookmarks. Plus I can edit the text as necessary (for example, I've developed a program to Anglicise US spellings, which really annoy me - try that with a dead-tree edition!) My library's about ½GB, mostly compressed.
Of course, I'm in a minority; many folks find palmtop screens or even monitors inappropriate for that sort of reading. And that's fine. But I hope they'll appreciate that some others find them useful.
IMO it's a similar situation to DVD region coding. Consumers never wanted it, but the big studios wouldn't put stuff on DVD unless it was protected, so the electronics companies had to agree to it, and if we wanted to use DVD we had to as well. Which many did. If M$ can make a must-have Palladium app (probably business- rather than consumer-targetted), then you'd be surprised how many go for it.
Of course, the DVD protection was broken: player makers turned a blind eye to region mods, or even quietly introduced them themselves; and similar hacks became available for many DVD-RAM drives. Nevertheless, region coding still exerts a good deal of control over the DVD markets, and causes many consumers great inconvenience. And the same will happen with Palladium: if it becomes widespread and desirable, then someone is bound to crack it. But that won't stop it from causing untold pain and misery.
Running Mac OS X 10.2.1 (`Jaguar') here, which is of course built on the BSD-family OS Darwin -- "Apple Computer, Inc. GCC version 1161, based on gcc version 3.1 20020420 (prerelease)".
That's odd... what should happen each time is that it logs on to the POP3 server, downloads any new mail, and then immediately logs off again. That's what happens to me, anyway...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but that's not true simply because they assert it.
It may be true; it may not. I don't know enough US law to tell. But if the law says that Slashdot may be held responsible, then I doubt any amount of disclaimer will prevent them from being sued. Sad, but true.
Result: all apps seem to have the new recessed widgets apart from iTunes. Perhaps it's the only one which doesn't use the system widgets.
I'm not convinced by the new ones yet. I'm not sure I like the idea of recessed widgets anyway, and this particular design just looks awkward and hacked-on.
I thought it was the date the patent was filed that mattered, not the date they started using the technique?
This is certainly a significant factor; maybe the significant factor in the increased comfort of Dvorak.
I started learning Dvorak, and got quite far, but the number of QWERTY keyboards I found myself using made me rethink. But like you, when I tried Dvorak I also stepped back and thought about how I type, and was able to use all of that when I went back to QWERTY, so that my typing is much more comfortable than it was.
For example, I'd toyed with touch-typing before, but at that point I learned it properly. I also looked at my hand positions; the touch-type positions I'd seen for the left hand felt quite unnatural, so I changed (using middle finger for RDX instead of EDC, for example), and like you ensured I used the right Shift key.
Later on, I had a small right palm strain, and found myself looking again at how I used my hands. (Stop sniggering at the back!) I found that my left hand was pretty much stationary, but my right was forever leaping between alphabetical keys, cursor keys, numeric keypad and mouse. As a result, I learned to mouse left-handed (I said stop sniggering!), which gives a much better balance of hand use for me. (Actually, I found left-handed mousing very easy to learn.)
The important thing is to think: look at what your hands are actually having to do, and think about how to improve things. This should help most folk who have problems, especially if you do it before they get too bad.
Quite. In fact, didn't Moore simply make the observation about past progress, and leave it up to others to try using it predictively?
ObQuote: "I am not a number! I'm a free man!!!"
Part of the problem is unfamiliarity; the thought of having to relearn all your favourite apps and habits. If people are already using open-source apps on Windows, then switching will be that much less painful. If it can be made desirable in other ways, then this could be a big win.
And no, accurate rendering isn't the only important part of a browser, otherwise we wouldn't have fine control over cookies/popups/images, download managers, bookmark management, tabbed browsing, and many other features.
And even `accurate' rendering still allows much leeway for elegance and consistency.
Those are some reasons why I currently use OmniWeb in preference to Chimera - though at the latter's current rate of development, I expect it to overtake OmniWeb before too long.
For the same reason that record companies are scared by P2P sharing, the internet, and the possibility of circuventing their restrictions: control. Companies are just control freaks. It's all about control.
A much better solution is one implemented by your ISP. For example, mine uses Brightmail, which screens out about 90% of my email before it gets near me (and not a single false positive). I suspect that ISP-level solution will become progressively more important as spam levels increase.
Of course, client-level screening will still work well as a supplement to ISP-level services.
First, I'd like to disagree with what many folks have said. Science fiction is not like ordinary fiction. I've read good SF that's lousy fiction; I've also read stuff billed as SF which wasn't, even though it made good fiction. Of course, SF is better if it's good fiction as well, but it's not vital. For example, SF benefits from realistic, subtle characterisation, but some of the great SF works have paper-thin, ludicrous characters, and they still work. Why? Because of the ideas.
IMO, SF is about ideas. They don't have to be about hard science, though many of the best ones are. They don't have to be physically possible, though again they often are. They don't even have to be fully comprehensible. They only have to be interesting and imaginative, and worked through with the other prerequisite: logic.
Good SF, like good humour, takes an idea and works through the consequences logically. It asks "What if?", and then goes on to tell us. This is where I think it diverges from fantasy; fantasy isn't interested in the consequences of the initial idea, merely using it as a device on which to hang a story. In SF, the plot is bound up with the idea itself. Some of the best SF takes the idea to its ultimate extreme; this may present us with a cautionary tale or dire warning, or conversely hopes or goals.
Some good SF uses the consequence of that idea to tell us about ourselves; the differences from the world of the story highlight aspects of our own world. Some great SF uses it to discuss the nature of the universe, of time, perception or reality itself. But none of these are essential. As I said, to me the essence of good SF is simply a good idea, followed through logically.
To take a few examples: I don't consider Star Wars to be real SF; it might make great fiction, but all the SF trappings are merely devices to tell a story that could be told just as well, though less spectacularly, in other ways. OTOH, I do consider The Truman Show to be great SF, for the sheer audacity of the central idea, and the wonderful logic with which it's followed through. I count some Star Trek episodes as SF; many not (though not all of those are bad stories). Blade Runner isn't good SF because it features androids; it's great SF because it uses them to ask questions about what it's like to be an android, how we develop emotions, and whether we can trust our memories.
And yet Apple is more open. I speak from personal experience here: I had a minor problem with one of the low-level parts of Mac OS X. I'm no OS hacker, just a user who's done some C work, but I was able to find the relevant bit of Darwin, download the source, play around with it until I got it working, and then contact and work with one of Apple's engineers. I'm told my fix will be in Mac OS X 10.3. How responsive is that?!
Yes, Apple are a large corporation. They're not perfect; they don't always do things I approve of, or that would personally benefit me the most. But they're improving, and IMO they have by far the best combination of openness and usability there is. So I'm happy to stick with them.
This isn't out of personal animosity towards M$ (I've never owned a PC), nor ignorance (I've been involved with many other non-Windows platforms). In some ways I think M$ has given all corporations a bad name. I wish people were able to consider Apple fairly, free of political (and geekiness) concerns.
I think you're missing the point, which is that as well as meeting the current requirements, refactored code is probably much easier to change to fit the next set of requirements too. At least, that's how it should be...
And yes, I do make rather good use of it. As well as the usual agenda/address book/notepad/games, I can do all my email on it (via mobile phone when not at home), route planning and GPS mapping, along with coding in Perl, Java, and its own built-in language; and play games like Infocom adventures, crosswords, and even a Doom engine; plus it has several hundred MBs of books, TomeRaider files and other reference works like the IMDB. I can view PDFs and pictures, handle zip files, and use FTP and Opera. But my most-used app is an off-line reader (OLR) for the CIX BBS, which I use to download and read messages and compose and upload replies - in my case, several hundred messages per day, maintaining a messagebase of around 60MB. (Disclaimer: I'm a co-author.) And all this with a touch-typeable keyboard and battery life of 20 hours or so.
(* It's a shame more people didn't realise their full potential, or they'd still be making them... :( )
I could do much of that on my desktop machine, but the convenience and time-saving of having it all with me on the train, on holiday, or just out and about, is something I couldn't be without.
So, just a status symbol for me? Don't think so :)
(I'm not a member of CaRP (the Campaign for Real Pedantry) for nothing, you know!)
...which is exactly why I used a smiley!
Looks like Apple's marketing bods have you guys all sussed, then!
And now I've seen the ad, I'm still completely non-plussed!
She's just a student, talking to camera. Admittedly, she's not bad looking. And she may reinforce a few of our stereotypes of Americans*. But really, what's all the fuss about?
(* This isn't ignorant prejudice, BTW - I've just got back from two weeks in California, so I know the stereotypes are true :)
(I did end up downloading a driver, in fact, so I could assign the third button, but without that I wouldn't have bothered.)
But newer drives (such as the one in my 2-year-old G4) have version 2, where the region setting is controlled by the drive's firmware, and there's no way for software to work around it.
The solution is to find version 1 for your drive, and rewrite its firmware; the links above show you how. The process is a little scary, and risky (worst case: you can end up with a completely useless drive), but it worked fine for me, and now I can change region as often as I want!
Why? What's intrinsically worse about someone speaking on a mobile than someone speaking to the person next to them?
Of course, some people shout into their phones, use loud and annoying ringtones, or are inconsiderate in other ways. But then many people are just as inconsiderate on aircraft, without the need for any artificial aid.
I speak as someone who has a mobile, and who does use it on public transport occasionally, but tries to do so considerately, speaks quietly, uses the vibrating alarm and so answers before anyone even hears the ringtone, and refrains at all costs from saying "I'M ON THE TRAIN!" Should I be banned too?
Clearly, none of these are true. Many people like to read ebooks; I'm one. Enough people are buying them to keep sites like Fictionwise going. And yet dead-tree books aren't going away; each format has its own advantages and disadvantages - the important thing is for people to have the choice.
Personally, I much prefer an (open) electronic format. I can keep a library on my palmtop, taking up no extra physical space at all, and have access to reading matter and reference material whether at home, in my lunch hour, on the train, on holiday, or wherever. I can search, cut-and-paste quotations, and easily use long-term bookmarks. Plus I can edit the text as necessary (for example, I've developed a program to Anglicise US spellings, which really annoy me - try that with a dead-tree edition!) My library's about ½GB, mostly compressed.
Of course, I'm in a minority; many folks find palmtop screens or even monitors inappropriate for that sort of reading. And that's fine. But I hope they'll appreciate that some others find them useful.
Content.
IMO it's a similar situation to DVD region coding. Consumers never wanted it, but the big studios wouldn't put stuff on DVD unless it was protected, so the electronics companies had to agree to it, and if we wanted to use DVD we had to as well. Which many did. If M$ can make a must-have Palladium app (probably business- rather than consumer-targetted), then you'd be surprised how many go for it.
Of course, the DVD protection was broken: player makers turned a blind eye to region mods, or even quietly introduced them themselves; and similar hacks became available for many DVD-RAM drives. Nevertheless, region coding still exerts a good deal of control over the DVD markets, and causes many consumers great inconvenience. And the same will happen with Palladium: if it becomes widespread and desirable, then someone is bound to crack it. But that won't stop it from causing untold pain and misery.
Running Mac OS X 10.2.1 (`Jaguar') here, which is of course built on the BSD-family OS Darwin -- "Apple Computer, Inc. GCC version 1161, based on gcc version 3.1 20020420 (prerelease)".
That's odd... what should happen each time is that it logs on to the POP3 server, downloads any new mail, and then immediately logs off again. That's what happens to me, anyway...