Well actually, my personal idea of 'computing' is AI & simulation & visualization for robotics. or at least, that's what I spend 90% of my time on.
But how do I do that? Well, I write thousands and thousands of lines of C++, Objective-C and little bits of python. But do I conjure all that code from my ass? No, I make C++ "documents", type for a while, and let the compiler sort it all out.
My point here, mr smarty, is that it all boils down to documents, you know, little files with text or binary information in them. I make these documents by typing or by drawing or by letting other documents -- programs -- transform one document into another, or some other process of IO. Perhaps one document -- again a program -- captures a stream of input from an external device and lets another document/program do something with it.
I don't mean to harp on this, but I don't know what kind of magic "do as I think" technology you're expecting. No matter how embedded the device is, it needs input, and for it to be useful, a vast majority of those inputs will have to be similar to what we use now, since what we use now works so well.
On the other hand, if some sort of embedded tooth-computer in the future can manage my bank account and write code for me and let me email my girlfriend and let me do whatever -- all without a keyboard -- then they'll have my money.
In terms of what a computer *looks* like, perhaps you're right.
but I'll wager that ten years from now, when we're all using handhelds wirelessly connected to the dumb-terminal monitor/mouse/keyboard we're sitting at we'll *still* be using word processors and whatnot.
What I mean is that the usage won't change, just the form factor.
Just because it's embedded has absolutely no relevance to what we're doing. Word processing or design or programming or CAD or music editing or non-linear video editing or just surfing for pr0n, we'll still need a window, a mouse, a monitor, menus, pointers, etc. Provided some amazing new "paradigm" doesn't replace WIMP.
I could be wrong, but I'm probably not. We use what we use, as unexciting as it may be, because it works, really, really well. Embedded systems are merely a change of hardware and form factor. For them to be useful, we'll still need to do the work we do today. Stylus text input and voice recognition isn't likely to change it, at least not for the majority.
Ironically, the webstart crashes ( OS X.3, java 1.4.2_05 ).
I'm no java expert ( I'm a rabid portable C/C++ guy... ) but it looked like the opengl bindings loaded by webstart weren't compatible. Could be a packaging error (x86 native JNI binary?), or it could be any number of things.
Personally, I don't really think Macs are "obscure" at all.
Macs have been around for what, 20 years? I don't know a single graphic designer who hasn't at least spent a fair amount ( if not all) of their time on them.
Obviously, Macs aren't number 1, but as regards *personal* computing they're definitely number 2. Macs have a huge mindshare. Macs are everywhere from schools to businesses to government and even science.
Saying the Mac is obscure is like saying Zenith is obscure because Sony has #1 marketshare. (Note how I avoided a car analogy.)
No argument here. Certainly our plastics will survive, though I'm less confident about our concrete and metal works. I'd guess that 10 thousand years would still see our works, but geological turnover and time itself would erase us after 20 thousand.
Anyway, I'm not saying the egyptians had cars or factories. Just that there's quite a bit of mechanical evidence that they had much better tools than we credit them with.
After all, how well do you think a bronze tool could cut diorite? It wouldn't last an hour. At the very least, they almost certainly had steel.
...sidestepping the snarky threads about the number of Mac games and so on...
Anyway, I want to say Marble Blast GOLD is a really, *really* fun game. It's original, it's nicely done, and it's based on the Torque engine which is something I've considered buying the developer license for. When you buy it, for 99 dollars, you get FULL source code.
I'm developing behavioral AI for robotics and my self-taught, home-brewed opengl is pretty crufty. While I could use an open source system like Ogre, there's appeal to using a proven API, even if it's not "free".
Well, really, what I want to say is give the Marble Blast GOLD demo a try. It's a kick in the pants.
I agree. I think Hancock's answers are probably full of bologna, but the elements leading up to those conclusions are fascinating. Like the drilling process used to hollow out the sarcophagi and the 15th century maps of antarctica so on.
Interesting stuff. There may never have been an Atlantis, and aliens certainly didn't build anything, but there's a hell of a lot of absolutely LOST and intentionally destroyed human history.
The only question remaining is what will the governments do about it. My guess is "not much"
My guess is the government(s) will wait until it's waaaayyy too late( all competition is out of business ), and then do too little ( not even a wrist slap ), and then blithely forget anything happened.
It is about choice. It's about which of the many high-quality and innovative Microsoft products you have to choose from. Choices abound!
For precedent, remember Henry Ford's possibly apocryphal statement: "Any color, as long as it's black"
Remember, kids: Microsoft is looking out for us. They're our friends. They're helping us with all the potential pitfalls of potentially incompatible competitors' products. All they ask is that absolutely everything we buy, see or do is made by them. Microsoft Trousers XP, now compatible with Microsoft Shirt 2007. Goes great with Microsoft Breakfast Deluxe edition. Ad infinitum.
DOSBox is excellent. I've been playing Ultima Underworld ( from CDs I bought in the late 90's ) on it. I bought the game originally, in 92 maybe, on 3.5" diskettes; but when the CDRom with the sequel came out I picked it up for I think 10 dollars from the bargain basket at babbage's.
On my 866 powerbook it runs about the same as the NEC powermate 386 I originally played it on 12 years ago, but it works:P
I should have specified that I'm talking about connecting to a shared printer on the network. And for what it's worth, my company is mostly windows, so you'd think that it would be smoother.
Frankly, I haven't plugged a printer directly into a computer since... maybe 1997. I can't comment on how well *any* OS handles that.
I agree with you 100%, but I want to point out recent experiences at my office, where I'm a graphic designer, and I periodically go between windows, KDE/linux and the other 99% of the time Mac OS X.
When I need to print, and if I need to select and configure a printer, OS X wins, hands down. I can find a printer on the network and get it configured in less than a minute. Peachy.
on linux, a little trouble. I had to format an url to give to cups. Took about 5 minutes, but once I did it it worked.
On windows... well... it generally takes me about 10 minutes to figure out how get the god-damned wizard to navigate to a listing where I can pick a printer from. usually takes a few back-n-forths, and sometimes it hangs as it searches the network. Generally, it takes me calling the IT people and getting them to set it up.
My point here is that people assume windows has a better gui, just because people are used to it, and accustomed to it's failures (I'm not talking about blue-screens, those are GONE).
My old room mate was an IT guy for a defense contactor -- a windows-only type of shop. he always snickered at my powerbook and at my thinkpad running linux. I didn't mind him laughing at linux as user-unfriendly, but he'd get on my mac and say "where's the start-menu?" "Where's windows-feature-x?" He's a smart guy, but he only knows windows, and to him, anything that deviates from windows is user-unfriendly.
How the hell did they get so popular? People are really willing to put up w/lack of choice and expensive prices?
I don't mean to be a pessimist, but it would seem that in modern times cheapness ( or perceived cheapness ) will always win over quality.
This is why everything is made in china and shoddy as hell; this is why looking at a low-end Apple/Compaq/Dell/HP laptop too hard will crack its screen, or blow its keys off.
Everything's corner-cut and cheapened to keep up with competitors. If you're the type who loves to buy a new version of gizmo X every 6 months, this is a great thing. For those of us, however, who would prefer to buy something once and use it for years, then well, we're SOL.
Pardon my bitterness, but I've been burned a few times recently. I'm really getting tired of this BS.
As reference: My GF bought a cheap no-name (Chinese) scooter -- I tried to talk her into spending a little more for a Honda or Yamaha ( admittedly, Vespas are simply too expensive. 4K? Absurd). Anyway, the scooter had manufacturing defects from stem to stern, including problems with the brake line and the engine's idle speed was so low it wouldn't run for more than 20 seconds without stalling. Brand new. Out of the box. Instructions so engrished that they read more like machine-translation than something a human might have written. Long story short, I spent all yesterday afternoon and part of the evening just getting it to work.
I have little faith that it will still be running in a year. And all to save a little money.
Sounds to me that, if you can afford it, you too can be a soft childlike Eloi in the future. Great, sign me up.
I think that some of these may come to pass, but 10 years is WAY too soon. What I mean here is, how different is today from ten years ago? Sure, the web and all, but they had BBSs and other similar tech since the 70s.
My car today isn't significantly different than a car bought in the 80s or early 90s, except its mileage is worse ( and my car's a small 2-door stickshift ).
My computer's essentially the same, just it's faster. Mac OS X is better than system 6, but really I use it for the same things: design & programming.
I hate the idea that we've plateau-ed technologically, but I think we have. We've reached a point of massive polishing and it might be decades before something new hits. And I don't mean computers... I mean something really new that changes everything, like free, infinite energy or anti-gravity or something.
The really big advances will be held back, possibly forever, because nobody will take liability when they ( inevitably ) fail in some way. Who is liable when two self-driving electric cars crash? The manufacturer? The city that lined the streets with sensors? The passengers, because they paid for the car and signed the EULA? For this reason flying cars won't happen, and pervasive nanotech will similarly be constrained.
I predict ten years from now won't be a whole lot different, except 3d graphics will be a lot better, my car will get worse mileage, and all consumer products will be built in china and will break in two years ( no offense to chinese, but man, quality control seems pretty lax there ).
I have an iPod & I'm not opposed to others publishing music for it. Frankly, I wish Apple would let anybody use their DRM.
As it stands, every track I buy off iTunes is promptly run through Hymn and de-DRM'd. I don't share them, I don't pirate. I just want to have a file which I can play, in principle, on some other device 10 years from now.
Anyway, it's not like I can't buy a CD, rip it to MP3/AAC/WAV/AIFF/etc and play it on my iPod.
Cripes. I wish Apple would pull their head out of their asses and let others publish with AAC, and I wish other people would get their head of their asses and realize iPods play all sorts of music files.
Newsflash: people are idiots.
Had a bit of a scare, recently
on
Anti-Phishing Tools
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I got an email from Earthlink that looks SO MUCH like a textbook Phishing scam ( your credit card number's going to expire... ) that I deleted it the first couple times it came my way.
It kept on coming, however, and I decided to go to earthlink myself ( e.g., not clicking the link ) and see what the deal was.
Turned out, it was legit. Amazing.
The trouble here, really, is how do we handle legitimate email from banks, ISPs, etc?
So you're saying no form of accident has ever happened, wherever you are posting from?
First, the referenced accident happened in Canada, so please if you're going to make a snarky remark about Americans, at least be relevant.
Second, we have huge trucks, small trucks, cars, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and bicycles all sharing roads in our cities. Do accidents happen? Of course they do. I couldn't quote statistics, but I would imagine the number of accidents in the states is probably proportional to our having an absurd number of vehicles. That is to say, it's probably not that we're all dunderheads as you imply, but simply that there are so many people and all of them are driving.
Should there be fewer cars & trucks? Fuck yes. But the cities and governments aren't interested in subsidizing mass transit to the extent they should. Complaints of profitability and all.
For what it's worth, I live in Washington DC and I ride my bicycle about 4.5 km to work through the rush-hour traffic every day. I've been hit twice in the last 4 years; fortunately neither accident was serious. By and large my experiences are fine. No egregious trouble with road sharing.
And on the weekends I do country rolling hill type road riding and I've yet to have any trouble with autos or trucks.
Absolutely. I gave up my three-button intellimouse for the original single-button too. It not only "feels" like a better mouse -- as in more solid and better tracking -- but the Mac OS is meant to be used by a person with the left hand on the keyboard and the right on the mouse. It just works better that way.
However, I keep a 3 button for when I use blender:/
Ooh! That's my birthday! And metroid and Castlevania are two of my favorites.
I might decide to dust off my shoddily afterburner'd GBA ( I performed the operation while half-drunk and watching the absolutely god-awful Dungeons & Dragons "film" )
Slashdot Mirror
Well actually, my personal idea of 'computing' is AI & simulation & visualization for robotics. or at least, that's what I spend 90% of my time on.
But how do I do that? Well, I write thousands and thousands of lines of C++, Objective-C and little bits of python. But do I conjure all that code from my ass? No, I make C++ "documents", type for a while, and let the compiler sort it all out.
My point here, mr smarty, is that it all boils down to documents, you know, little files with text or binary information in them. I make these documents by typing or by drawing or by letting other documents -- programs -- transform one document into another, or some other process of IO. Perhaps one document -- again a program -- captures a stream of input from an external device and lets another document/program do something with it.
I don't mean to harp on this, but I don't know what kind of magic "do as I think" technology you're expecting. No matter how embedded the device is, it needs input, and for it to be useful, a vast majority of those inputs will have to be similar to what we use now, since what we use now works so well.
On the other hand, if some sort of embedded tooth-computer in the future can manage my bank account and write code for me and let me email my girlfriend and let me do whatever -- all without a keyboard -- then they'll have my money.
In terms of what a computer *looks* like, perhaps you're right.
but I'll wager that ten years from now, when we're all using handhelds wirelessly connected to the dumb-terminal monitor/mouse/keyboard we're sitting at we'll *still* be using word processors and whatnot.
What I mean is that the usage won't change, just the form factor.
Just because it's embedded has absolutely no relevance to what we're doing. Word processing or design or programming or CAD or music editing or non-linear video editing or just surfing for pr0n, we'll still need a window, a mouse, a monitor, menus, pointers, etc. Provided some amazing new "paradigm" doesn't replace WIMP.
I could be wrong, but I'm probably not. We use what we use, as unexciting as it may be, because it works, really, really well. Embedded systems are merely a change of hardware and form factor. For them to be useful, we'll still need to do the work we do today. Stylus text input and voice recognition isn't likely to change it, at least not for the majority.
While I'd like to mod you insightful, I have to sacrifice that right, because I have to tell you something:
Your idea of a dumb terminal to TheHun just MADE MY GODDAMN DAY. Somebody, give this man a patent!
That's all,
TomorrowPlusX
I'm a mac guy, and I'm not generally interested in processor politics, on either side of the fence.
So, what I'm wondering here is, what's so bad about the Itanic? I'm always hearing people joke about it and so on...
Is it just that it isn't selling? Or is there really something wrong with it?
Ironically, the webstart crashes ( OS X.3, java 1.4.2_05 ).
I'm no java expert ( I'm a rabid portable C/C++ guy... ) but it looked like the opengl bindings loaded by webstart weren't compatible. Could be a packaging error (x86 native JNI binary?), or it could be any number of things.
Anyway, I still think it's incredibly cool.
Personally, I don't really think Macs are "obscure" at all.
Macs have been around for what, 20 years? I don't know a single graphic designer who hasn't at least spent a fair amount ( if not all) of their time on them.
Obviously, Macs aren't number 1, but as regards *personal* computing they're definitely number 2. Macs have a huge mindshare. Macs are everywhere from schools to businesses to government and even science.
Saying the Mac is obscure is like saying Zenith is obscure because Sony has #1 marketshare. (Note how I avoided a car analogy.)
No argument here. Certainly our plastics will survive, though I'm less confident about our concrete and metal works. I'd guess that 10 thousand years would still see our works, but geological turnover and time itself would erase us after 20 thousand.
Anyway, I'm not saying the egyptians had cars or factories. Just that there's quite a bit of mechanical evidence that they had much better tools than we credit them with.
After all, how well do you think a bronze tool could cut diorite? It wouldn't last an hour. At the very least, they almost certainly had steel.
...sidestepping the snarky threads about the number of Mac games and so on...
Anyway, I want to say Marble Blast GOLD is a really, *really* fun game. It's original, it's nicely done, and it's based on the Torque engine which is something I've considered buying the developer license for. When you buy it, for 99 dollars, you get FULL source code.
I'm developing behavioral AI for robotics and my self-taught, home-brewed opengl is pretty crufty. While I could use an open source system like Ogre, there's appeal to using a proven API, even if it's not "free".
Well, really, what I want to say is give the Marble Blast GOLD demo a try. It's a kick in the pants.
I agree. I think Hancock's answers are probably full of bologna, but the elements leading up to those conclusions are fascinating. Like the drilling process used to hollow out the sarcophagi and the 15th century maps of antarctica so on.
Interesting stuff. There may never have been an Atlantis, and aliens certainly didn't build anything, but there's a hell of a lot of absolutely LOST and intentionally destroyed human history.
I think it's our duty to explore this stuff.
There needs to be a "No concept of history" moderation.
X11 has been around for longer than many slashdotters have been alive.
And does KDE need more stuff? The K is for "Kram it all in!"Oooh! Another joke about KDE having too much functionality, and a clever wordplay on the letter K!!! Take that KDE developers!!!
Well then, you'd use an an apostrophe, wouldn't you?
My guess is the government(s) will wait until it's waaaayyy too late( all competition is out of business ), and then do too little ( not even a wrist slap ), and then blithely forget anything happened.
Not that there's any precedent.
No, you're not *quite* right.
It is about choice. It's about which of the many high-quality and innovative Microsoft products you have to choose from. Choices abound!
For precedent, remember Henry Ford's possibly apocryphal statement: "Any color, as long as it's black"
Remember, kids: Microsoft is looking out for us. They're our friends. They're helping us with all the potential pitfalls of potentially incompatible competitors' products. All they ask is that absolutely everything we buy, see or do is made by them. Microsoft Trousers XP, now compatible with Microsoft Shirt 2007. Goes great with Microsoft Breakfast Deluxe edition. Ad infinitum.
I better stop now. I feel more ranting brewing.
It's 3M. Every time middle america freaks out, duct-tape sales go THROUGH THE ROOF.
DOSBox is excellent. I've been playing Ultima Underworld ( from CDs I bought in the late 90's ) on it. I bought the game originally, in 92 maybe, on 3.5" diskettes; but when the CDRom with the sequel came out I picked it up for I think 10 dollars from the bargain basket at babbage's.
:P
On my 866 powerbook it runs about the same as the NEC powermate 386 I originally played it on 12 years ago, but it works
I should have specified that I'm talking about connecting to a shared printer on the network. And for what it's worth, my company is mostly windows, so you'd think that it would be smoother.
Frankly, I haven't plugged a printer directly into a computer since... maybe 1997. I can't comment on how well *any* OS handles that.
I agree with you 100%, but I want to point out recent experiences at my office, where I'm a graphic designer, and I periodically go between windows, KDE/linux and the other 99% of the time Mac OS X.
When I need to print, and if I need to select and configure a printer, OS X wins, hands down. I can find a printer on the network and get it configured in less than a minute. Peachy.
on linux, a little trouble. I had to format an url to give to cups. Took about 5 minutes, but once I did it it worked.
On windows... well... it generally takes me about 10 minutes to figure out how get the god-damned wizard to navigate to a listing where I can pick a printer from. usually takes a few back-n-forths, and sometimes it hangs as it searches the network. Generally, it takes me calling the IT people and getting them to set it up.
My point here is that people assume windows has a better gui, just because people are used to it, and accustomed to it's failures (I'm not talking about blue-screens, those are GONE).
My old room mate was an IT guy for a defense contactor -- a windows-only type of shop. he always snickered at my powerbook and at my thinkpad running linux. I didn't mind him laughing at linux as user-unfriendly, but he'd get on my mac and say "where's the start-menu?" "Where's windows-feature-x?" He's a smart guy, but he only knows windows, and to him, anything that deviates from windows is user-unfriendly.
I don't mean to be a pessimist, but it would seem that in modern times cheapness ( or perceived cheapness ) will always win over quality.
This is why everything is made in china and shoddy as hell; this is why looking at a low-end Apple/Compaq/Dell/HP laptop too hard will crack its screen, or blow its keys off.
Everything's corner-cut and cheapened to keep up with competitors. If you're the type who loves to buy a new version of gizmo X every 6 months, this is a great thing. For those of us, however, who would prefer to buy something once and use it for years, then well, we're SOL.
Pardon my bitterness, but I've been burned a few times recently. I'm really getting tired of this BS.
As reference: My GF bought a cheap no-name (Chinese) scooter -- I tried to talk her into spending a little more for a Honda or Yamaha ( admittedly, Vespas are simply too expensive. 4K? Absurd). Anyway, the scooter had manufacturing defects from stem to stern, including problems with the brake line and the engine's idle speed was so low it wouldn't run for more than 20 seconds without stalling. Brand new. Out of the box. Instructions so engrished that they read more like machine-translation than something a human might have written. Long story short, I spent all yesterday afternoon and part of the evening just getting it to work.
I have little faith that it will still be running in a year. And all to save a little money.
Sounds to me that, if you can afford it, you too can be a soft childlike Eloi in the future. Great, sign me up.
I think that some of these may come to pass, but 10 years is WAY too soon. What I mean here is, how different is today from ten years ago? Sure, the web and all, but they had BBSs and other similar tech since the 70s.
My car today isn't significantly different than a car bought in the 80s or early 90s, except its mileage is worse ( and my car's a small 2-door stickshift ).
My computer's essentially the same, just it's faster. Mac OS X is better than system 6, but really I use it for the same things: design & programming.
I hate the idea that we've plateau-ed technologically, but I think we have. We've reached a point of massive polishing and it might be decades before something new hits. And I don't mean computers... I mean something really new that changes everything, like free, infinite energy or anti-gravity or something.
The really big advances will be held back, possibly forever, because nobody will take liability when they ( inevitably ) fail in some way. Who is liable when two self-driving electric cars crash? The manufacturer? The city that lined the streets with sensors? The passengers, because they paid for the car and signed the EULA? For this reason flying cars won't happen, and pervasive nanotech will similarly be constrained.
I predict ten years from now won't be a whole lot different, except 3d graphics will be a lot better, my car will get worse mileage, and all consumer products will be built in china and will break in two years ( no offense to chinese, but man, quality control seems pretty lax there ).
Can't. I'm on a Mac! ...and I don't have, or have access to, a PC.
I have an iPod & I'm not opposed to others publishing music for it. Frankly, I wish Apple would let anybody use their DRM.
As it stands, every track I buy off iTunes is promptly run through Hymn and de-DRM'd. I don't share them, I don't pirate. I just want to have a file which I can play, in principle, on some other device 10 years from now.
Anyway, it's not like I can't buy a CD, rip it to MP3/AAC/WAV/AIFF/etc and play it on my iPod.
Cripes. I wish Apple would pull their head out of their asses and let others publish with AAC, and I wish other people would get their head of their asses and realize iPods play all sorts of music files.
Newsflash: people are idiots.
I got an email from Earthlink that looks SO MUCH like a textbook Phishing scam ( your credit card number's going to expire... ) that I deleted it the first couple times it came my way.
It kept on coming, however, and I decided to go to earthlink myself ( e.g., not clicking the link ) and see what the deal was.
Turned out, it was legit. Amazing.
The trouble here, really, is how do we handle legitimate email from banks, ISPs, etc?
So you're saying no form of accident has ever happened, wherever you are posting from?
First, the referenced accident happened in Canada, so please if you're going to make a snarky remark about Americans, at least be relevant.
Second, we have huge trucks, small trucks, cars, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and bicycles all sharing roads in our cities. Do accidents happen? Of course they do. I couldn't quote statistics, but I would imagine the number of accidents in the states is probably proportional to our having an absurd number of vehicles. That is to say, it's probably not that we're all dunderheads as you imply, but simply that there are so many people and all of them are driving.
Should there be fewer cars & trucks? Fuck yes. But the cities and governments aren't interested in subsidizing mass transit to the extent they should. Complaints of profitability and all.
For what it's worth, I live in Washington DC and I ride my bicycle about 4.5 km to work through the rush-hour traffic every day. I've been hit twice in the last 4 years; fortunately neither accident was serious. By and large my experiences are fine. No egregious trouble with road sharing.
And on the weekends I do country rolling hill type road riding and I've yet to have any trouble with autos or trucks.
I have no idea why you were moderated insightful.
Absolutely. I gave up my three-button intellimouse for the original single-button too. It not only "feels" like a better mouse -- as in more solid and better tracking -- but the Mac OS is meant to be used by a person with the left hand on the keyboard and the right on the mouse. It just works better that way.
However, I keep a 3 button for when I use blender :/
Ooh! That's my birthday! And metroid and Castlevania are two of my favorites.
I might decide to dust off my shoddily afterburner'd GBA ( I performed the operation while half-drunk and watching the absolutely god-awful Dungeons & Dragons "film" )