You really can't expect much in the way of sound quality from any of the compressed formats supported by the iPod, but I have in any case found the single biggest limitation to sound quality is the earphones supplied by default with the gadget. They are really not very good. But given that they are often or usually used where there are high levels of ambient noise, discussion of the respective codecs or the gadget itself is pretty much irrelevant, as you are unlikely to hear the defects much.
There are other options for earbuds, depending on how much you want to pay. From the reviews I've read, the Shure in-ear phones might be one of the better-value options, but I can't afford them yet, so I don't have any first-hand experience of them.
I've mentioned my opinion of the in-ear option supplied by Apple in previous posts, so I won't go into any more detail than to say don't touch it. I should have taken more notice of the Cnet reviews, but caveat emptor.
What you are trying to say is that windows is dumbed down to the most inexpert user, and on top of that, there is no expert user mode to switch to.
That's a pretty fair assessment. The worst of it is, however, is that the error messages Windows often supplies are useless - or, given how infuriating they can be, worse than useless.
A recent case comes to mind where I was (attempting to) install a legally purchased copy of MSOffice on my wife's iBook (the reason for this is another issue altogether). The installation apparently went along without mishap, but the first time we attempted to load any of the applications resulted in nothing more than a cryptic error message. End of story - software still broken.
The idea of having *any* separate partitions on a single disk machine is just cargo cult systems administration.
Then one might respectfully suggest that you go and learn something about system administration.
A very simplistic instance of this is that there is a lot to be said for mounting/boot and possibly/etc (or whatever the equivalents are under Windows) as read-only partitions. If you care to trust the kind of mechanisms Microsoft supplies in order to secure your systems, it's your hide, not mine. Given Microsoft's record on security, I prefer to do it my way, thank you very much.
Additionally, there is plenty to be said for mounting custom or self-compiled binaries on a separate partition (e.g./usr/local in a *nix environment). Makes it a lot easier and quicker to manage upgrades of OS-related files without breaking everything you already have, and this also applies particularly to user data (/home). If you're the sysadmin responsible for losing that, you're really in for a fun time.
I'm thinking of those damn in-ear ear-plugs that I bought hoping for better sound quality than the standard ear-buds, but which won't stay in my ears for love or money. Now my ears are unexceptional as far as size and shape are concerned, but the nasal application of these earphones is quite successful.
it can be a great way to come back to slashdot and already be logged in. I hate typing in my password all the time.
you could always try setting up a bookmark or (preferably) a link on a local homepage such as http://slashdot.org/index.pl?op=userlogin&upasswd= somebloodystringofhex&unickname=UserName. I think it's somewhere in the/. FAQ.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me, but how are cookies a privacy issue? The cookie gives the site access to information which it created in the first place, not any of your personal data.
This is true. But the point is, if you re-visit the site to some point before the cookie expires (assuming that it does), the site can add to its profile of your interests incrementally over a period of time.
If you are happy to let them do so without letting you know, then I guess that level of privacy isn't important to you. I personally prefer not to casually make available any more information about me than I can absolutely help. The emphasis there is on the "casual"; sites with an explicit sign-on facility (e.g. Slashdot) are a different matter. The fact that you have signed on implies a certain degree of trust, which as far as I'm concerned is acceptable, and these sites don't need cookies to build up their profiles.
These days, it's the browser that does the auto-filling, not cookies.
And that's fine by me. I've operated for years with my cookies file symlinked to/dev/null, but allowing servers to set cookies for the session as much as they need to. As far as I'm concerned, it's a good compromise between functionality and security, in so far as I don't really need Google or anybody else being able to form statistics out of my web viewing practices.
Is it really all the important? You see it for about 3 seconds, each time you boot your computer.M/i>
Exactly. And if you're a reasonably "serious" Linux user, you're not going to reboot very often anyway. The box I'm posting this from was only restarted the other day because I upgraded the kernel...
I'd like to see how "excellent" you think it is after someone beats the crap out of you, or rapes your daughter...
Rubbish. The only times we hear of a conviction arising from surveillance camera footage are when some kind of financial or political pull is involved.
If someone mugs you in the street, nobody will care, and nobody will even bother looking at the recording (assuming the camera is not a dummy), let alone follow up with any identification process.
Wake up, the real world is knocking at your door...
Yes, those who obstruct the identification process will be breaking the law.
Whose law are you talking about? Austrian? Or US?
In any case, I would like to see the verdict from the prosecution of the first man to wear a full beard and sunglasses in front of a camera. I know it's currently trendy for governments to take away civil liberties, but it's only a matter of time before people revolt if they are pushed too far.
The original Australian colonists may have been criminals
Depends where you're talking about. That might apply to New South Wales, but most Sydneysiders (many of whom persist in referring to NSW as the largest state) seem to be unaware of that larger area to the left hand side of the continent.
Western Australia, far from being a penal colony, was settled largely by well-heeled citizens. They may have been criminals in other respects, but they weren't sent out for punishment.
Good point. When I first started using Linux (early 90s) the LUGs here in Western Australia were a common way of acquiring ISOs of distros. Back then most of us here were on 56K dialup lines, and 640MB downloads were enough of a tough chew to drive many into the shops to buy copies of RedHat.
I did that myself for a while, when I got sick of ploughing through all those SLS/Slackware floppies, but am happy to be able to say Slackware is still where it's at for me.
The untrusting SOB that I am, I don't people invading my privacy and tracking me wherever I go.
Nor do I. Microsoft presents this as a warm/fuzzy feature, but if it's implemented, it's only a matter of time before records of customers' movement have to be retained by the telcos for the use of insidious, invasive and/or paranoid government agencies.
Ultimately, it's all pretty silly. If you have a legitimate reason to want to know where someone is, the simple and intelligent thing to do would be to simply call him up and ask.
To be fair (which, for me, is rare;-) ) Bill G and wife have been associated with a number of worthy charitable causes for some time.
They are relatively harmless. If anybody is looking for someone evil to despise and malign, it probably doesn't take too much insight to see where to point the bone.
I think that there is just not that MANY programmers over 40 these days...
Hmmm. I'm a former sysprog and well into my 40s now. Although I don't code for a living any more, I still do it from time to time. Most of my energy is now spent outside IT, however, since I went back to school to study molecular biology. A total change of scene like this is one I can recommend to jaded "Real Programmers".
I'm not sure where you're coming from with that "real development, outside of cobol/fortran over 20 years ago was very limited and not that many positions compared to today", but maybe you weren't there. From my perspective, there was plenty of active development in the 70s and 80s to keep me a very busy boy as a contractor.
I was a bit puzzled by the OP's mention of support under OS X. When I set up my wife's iBook bor her, I was pleased to notice that emacs was installed by default. Maybe he's talking about XEmacs? I've never used the latter; GNU emacs supports X11 well enough for me, and is now my editor of choice since I stopped using TECO back in the early '90s.
Also, your passenger can answer the phone for you if you want, and pass on a message. After all, there's nothing stopping you from pulling over if you want to make a call. Most other road users should appreciate not having to share a road with someone who is behaving like an idiot.
...but unfortunately, a large portion of Slashdotters (self included) live in America where we aren't so fortunate.
Indeed - but many of the remainder live in countries such as Australia and Britain where the respective administrations are equally content to follow suit. While we continue to vote for politicians who are prepared to soil their noses by bottom-feeding amongst the corporate community, this problem just isn't going to go away.
Judging by my recent cd purchases, I'll be safe evermore.
Same here. Out of curiosity, I had a bit of a prowl through my large-ish CD collection the other day, and I found only one with a Sony label after I had got about 20% of the way through, at which point I stopped.
Incidentally, that CD (John Williams: The Seville Concert) is one I was given by a relative, and I don't like it very much, so maybe it doesn't count anyway...
Here are a couple of suggestions to try and improve traffic:...
A quick way of doing this might be to block all (or most) Flash presentations. It is my experience that any site that heavily employs Flash displays tends to be very thin on content, despite the fact that they usually chew through a fair amount of bandwidth.
Slashdot Mirror
There are other options for earbuds, depending on how much you want to pay. From the reviews I've read, the Shure in-ear phones might be one of the better-value options, but I can't afford them yet, so I don't have any first-hand experience of them.
I've mentioned my opinion of the in-ear option supplied by Apple in previous posts, so I won't go into any more detail than to say don't touch it. I should have taken more notice of the Cnet reviews, but caveat emptor.
That's a pretty fair assessment. The worst of it is, however, is that the error messages Windows often supplies are useless - or, given how infuriating they can be, worse than useless.
A recent case comes to mind where I was (attempting to) install a legally purchased copy of MSOffice on my wife's iBook (the reason for this is another issue altogether). The installation apparently went along without mishap, but the first time we attempted to load any of the applications resulted in nothing more than a cryptic error message. End of story - software still broken.
Then one might respectfully suggest that you go and learn something about system administration.
A very simplistic instance of this is that there is a lot to be said for mounting /boot and possibly /etc (or whatever the equivalents are under Windows) as read-only partitions. If you care to trust the kind of mechanisms Microsoft supplies in order to secure your systems, it's your hide, not mine. Given Microsoft's record on security, I prefer to do it my way, thank you very much.
Additionally, there is plenty to be said for mounting custom or self-compiled binaries on a separate partition (e.g. /usr/local in a *nix environment). Makes it a lot easier and quicker to manage upgrades of OS-related files without breaking everything you already have, and this also applies particularly to user data (/home). If you're the sysadmin responsible for losing that, you're really in for a fun time.
Possibly, yes.
I'm serious. Really. Well, sort of...
I'm thinking of those damn in-ear ear-plugs that I bought hoping for better sound quality than the standard ear-buds, but which won't stay in my ears for love or money. Now my ears are unexceptional as far as size and shape are concerned, but the nasal application of these earphones is quite successful.
It does make me look a prat, though. :-P
It does indeed; thanks for that. For once, I've actually learned something useful from reading Slashdot... :-)
you could always try setting up a bookmark or (preferably) a link on a local homepage such as http://slashdot.org/index.pl?op=userlogin&upasswd= somebloodystringofhex&unickname=UserName. I think it's somewhere in the /. FAQ.
This is true. But the point is, if you re-visit the site to some point before the cookie expires (assuming that it does), the site can add to its profile of your interests incrementally over a period of time.
If you are happy to let them do so without letting you know, then I guess that level of privacy isn't important to you. I personally prefer not to casually make available any more information about me than I can absolutely help. The emphasis there is on the "casual"; sites with an explicit sign-on facility (e.g. Slashdot) are a different matter. The fact that you have signed on implies a certain degree of trust, which as far as I'm concerned is acceptable, and these sites don't need cookies to build up their profiles.
And that's fine by me. I've operated for years with my cookies file symlinked to /dev/null, but allowing servers to set cookies for the session as much as they need to. As far as I'm concerned, it's a good compromise between functionality and security, in so far as I don't really need Google or anybody else being able to form statistics out of my web viewing practices.
"I'm not quite dead!"
Exactly. And if you're a reasonably "serious" Linux user, you're not going to reboot very often anyway. The box I'm posting this from was only restarted the other day because I upgraded the kernel...
You forgot to mention the in-ear type of buds for the iPod that won't stay in because Apple entirely failed to take human anatomy into account...
I've got a pair, and it has sat on the shelf ever since I bought it.
Rubbish. The only times we hear of a conviction arising from surveillance camera footage are when some kind of financial or political pull is involved.
If someone mugs you in the street, nobody will care, and nobody will even bother looking at the recording (assuming the camera is not a dummy), let alone follow up with any identification process.
Wake up, the real world is knocking at your door...
Whose law are you talking about? Austrian? Or US?
In any case, I would like to see the verdict from the prosecution of the first man to wear a full beard and sunglasses in front of a camera. I know it's currently trendy for governments to take away civil liberties, but it's only a matter of time before people revolt if they are pushed too far.
Depends where you're talking about. That might apply to New South Wales, but most Sydneysiders (many of whom persist in referring to NSW as the largest state) seem to be unaware of that larger area to the left hand side of the continent.
Western Australia, far from being a penal colony, was settled largely by well-heeled citizens. They may have been criminals in other respects, but they weren't sent out for punishment.
I did that myself for a while, when I got sick of ploughing through all those SLS/Slackware floppies, but am happy to be able to say Slackware is still where it's at for me.
Nor do I. Microsoft presents this as a warm/fuzzy feature, but if it's implemented, it's only a matter of time before records of customers' movement have to be retained by the telcos for the use of insidious, invasive and/or paranoid government agencies.
Ultimately, it's all pretty silly. If you have a legitimate reason to want to know where someone is, the simple and intelligent thing to do would be to simply call him up and ask.
They are relatively harmless. If anybody is looking for someone evil to despise and malign, it probably doesn't take too much insight to see where to point the bone.
Hmmm. I'm a former sysprog and well into my 40s now. Although I don't code for a living any more, I still do it from time to time. Most of my energy is now spent outside IT, however, since I went back to school to study molecular biology. A total change of scene like this is one I can recommend to jaded "Real Programmers".
I'm not sure where you're coming from with that "real development, outside of cobol/fortran over 20 years ago was very limited and not that many positions compared to today", but maybe you weren't there. From my perspective, there was plenty of active development in the 70s and 80s to keep me a very busy boy as a contractor.
My immediate suspicion would be a virus/worm/spywarebot calling home.
For all its many other faults, Windows usually seems to handle DHCP reasonably well.
I was a bit puzzled by the OP's mention of support under OS X. When I set up my wife's iBook bor her, I was pleased to notice that emacs was installed by default. Maybe he's talking about XEmacs? I've never used the latter; GNU emacs supports X11 well enough for me, and is now my editor of choice since I stopped using TECO back in the early '90s.
Also, your passenger can answer the phone for you if you want, and pass on a message. After all, there's nothing stopping you from pulling over if you want to make a call. Most other road users should appreciate not having to share a road with someone who is behaving like an idiot.
Indeed - but many of the remainder live in countries such as Australia and Britain where the respective administrations are equally content to follow suit. While we continue to vote for politicians who are prepared to soil their noses by bottom-feeding amongst the corporate community, this problem just isn't going to go away.
No. I checked, and apparently I don't.
Same here. Out of curiosity, I had a bit of a prowl through my large-ish CD collection the other day, and I found only one with a Sony label after I had got about 20% of the way through, at which point I stopped.
Incidentally, that CD (John Williams: The Seville Concert) is one I was given by a relative, and I don't like it very much, so maybe it doesn't count anyway...
A quick way of doing this might be to block all (or most) Flash presentations. It is my experience that any site that heavily employs Flash displays tends to be very thin on content, despite the fact that they usually chew through a fair amount of bandwidth.