A long time ago, when SGI was the darling of the industry and Apple was being lambasted I was fond of pointing out that the same things journalists said about Apple could be said about SGI: niche product, niche market, limited software selection, nice looking hardware but...etc.
The problem is, Apple stopped being like Apple and SGI never did.
I always wanted an SGI workstation though.
Think Sun will be next? If it is, what are we doing to use to replace the dot in dot-com?
Thank you, someone, for introducing the concept of opportunity cost. It's very relevant.
Now could someone tell me what a real alternative is? A browser that DOESN'T access a default search engine? The first thing it does is prompts me to make a choice, probably listing a bunch of options I[prototypical end-user]'ve never heard of/used?
There needs to be a default. Perhaps it should be the/. search field?
And yes, I know you don't need a Hotmail account to use -- I connect 3 hotmails and 3 non-hotmails every day.
Messenger is the most popular instant messaging service in Canada. Why Microsoft is giving up the MSN brand up here is astounding to me.
But I generally agree: there is little other use to hotmail right now -- it doesn't even save your sent mail by default for more than 30 days in its web interface. Time for a revamp on that service.
there have been others in the past, although some not as portable. ascii output saved to floppy disks was a common interchange format, which you may find useless.
i'd second the sidekick as the best of it's ilk, although i don't own one (and won't buy one.) i may need one for work, in which case I'll bite the bullet perhaps.
an old Psion device (readily availalbe on eBay) might fit your bill, depending on your interface of choice. the keyboards on these were quite palatable.
finding something with USB might be difficult; you may be able to use IRDA to get data off of these, although finding a reasonably modern machine with IRDA appears to be tough - adapters are available that might bring you bliss.
Don't underestimate the ability of the Canadian government to CREATE involved in bureaucracy. We've got a long history of it up here. Our public works department lost over a $1 Billion in a variety of programs; a $25 Million gun control database has now cost over $1 Billion. An entire ministry exists at the Federal level to push money around in a system which is, by definition, controlled at the provincial level.
Yes, we're pretty good at creating bureaucracy when we try. The CRTC isn't even our most heinous example.
As for where Skype fits in, this is the problem we'll face: with technologies that already exist to allow Voice over IP to happen without regulation, why waste time regulating the other stuff?
Given how astonishingly well Symantec products work on the PC, might this be a case of trying to raise F.U.D. amongst users?
Besides, Apple's market share gains have been - at best - modest to date, love them though I do. Sold another one last night while I was at a climbing gym.
So do any number of server based tools, such as Movable Type. This, in fact, is one of the things I like about Movable Type.
Dreamweaver has a large installed base, because a lot fo small/medium companies liked the idea of buying software. In my experience, if these companies actually spent time looking at their workflow and the time spent, they'd very quickly be able to do math that suggested paying for a competent installation of a content management system.
My first reaction to this post was: Dreamweaver *HAS* powerful templating features? I used it for a while; it was more efficient not too.
Had Apple chosen, it could have made the iPod a straightforward MP3 player like any other (iRiver, Creative Nomad etc.) Mount as hard drive, copy files, unmount, listen.
Instead, Apple choice to "prefer" AAC encoded files and create the ITMS could be seen as a market limiting choice, as could it's decision to link iPod & iTunes. Any number of consumers could choose to buy iRiver's products instead, and have a theoretically "open" product.
Sorry Marge, the mob has spoken here. People are buying iPods. In HUGE numbers. Lemme tell ya: I spend time working in a retail store that sells these things: in the last 3 months, I've been asked about the non-iPod hard drive players a handful of times; I've sold exactly none. In contrast, we can't get enough iPods to sell 'em.
This is competition at its best: Apple owns the market. You don't have to buy music from the ITMS if you don't want too, and you don't have to buy an iPod.
Fair enough, I debated the inclusion of the word "far" but was simply too lazy to edit it out. I figured it wasn't central to the point, which had more to do with land use.
I like the Jetta TDI; nice toy. Although I generally am not a fan of Jetta sedans, wagons are nice.
Yes efficient cars should be encouraged, but you need to step back and look at the whole board here.
A fuel efficient Prius has the same impact as a far less efficient Toyota Echo on the road surface. You still need to appropriate a huge swath of my (the taxpayers) land for it to drive on.
Admittedly a Hummer will have more impact on road maintenance than either of the above, but from a land use perspective all three are very similar. They all require asphalt, tarmac and a law enforcement infrastructure designed to manage it. (Unless, of course, the Hummer owner decides to drive wherever, whenever he wants....there's an inherent assumption here that drivers are using roads:)
I've actually long thought that INSURANCE should be based not on some actuarial reading of a table that says my Volvo is safer than your Camaro (although that should remain a factor) but also on how much one drives - a simple odometer reading.
I have driven marginally in the last year - choosing my bike instead - and yet am paying the same amount of insurance as in previous years (roughly); the fact that I'm driving less obviously reduces the chance that I'll have an accident and this should be reflected in a reduced insurance rate.
So California: legislate insurance by mileage, let private industry do the data collection (and fraud detection) and then tax the insurance cost to pay for land use.
Besides - what's to stop you from blocking the GPS unit by using a lead box or something; these things are line of site still, are they not?
Can you back your comments on Canada's health care system with any evidence?
Empirical, un-substantiated examples have a habit of skewing the view; such things happen in the United States as well.
Patients die in waiting rooms, from malpractice, or because hospitals won't treat them becuase they can't afford to pay the bill. It's pretty easy to make any healthcare system that requires you to make choices look bad by pointing out the mistakes, without evidence of how frequently those happen.
The biggest difference is in Canada, my Grandfather had a double bypass and didn't have to mortgage his house. This is - as Martha Stewart would say - a good thing.
All systems have their downsides, but I'll bet my healthcare system (poorly managed & arguably underfunded as it may currently be) against the American system any day.
Arcteryx makes the Blade 21: http://www.arcteryx.com/product.aspx?group=Pa cks&p rod=1026
and it's the best laptop backpack I've ever owned. I've owned 7.
I like the Arcteryx because: 1) It's a great backpack; the straps are conmfortable and nothing digs into your bag. Why bother wearing a backpack that's not comfortable? 2) It will generally fit any computer; there are limits, but my 15" PowerBook wasn't a problem, even if I choose to carry it (unnecessarily so) in a Neoprene sleeve 3) It has a separate pocket for carrying files etc, which is fairly cavernous. There are two additional pockets for pens/cards/cables etc. 4) It is clean looking, and doesn't look like a dorky Targus notebook bag. The pack itself doesn't really have anything hanging off of it, so it never gets caught on things. 5) It includes a handle that lets you carry the bag briefcase style; very convenient when moving short distances, or arriving at corporate offices. 6) I can use it to carry my avalanche shovel on winter expeditions, although I have another pack that does that as well.
What I don't like about it: 1) Zippers can be bad for shiny white plastic iBooks; if you're carrying one of these, you'd better get a neoprene sleeve or something to avoid scratches (or buy a PowerBook, which was my solution to the problem; the Aluminum doesn't scratch easily.) I like Marware's Neoprene sleeve 2) There is no padding on the top of the bag (the side with the handle.) This is not uncommon - in fact this bag has padding on every other side, which is rare. I blame my golf clubs for it, but I have a minor dent in a corner a of PB which might have been prevented with padding on the top of the bag.
All in all a great bag; I considered some of the Swiss Army products, but they sort of look a bit too back-packy for me in a work environment.
> but it in terms of time, it's still by far the most efficient way to > go around. And if you can eliminate the ecological impact of > driving, why not do it instead of wasting away your life at bus > stops or waiting to be picked up or dropped off?
but that's the point - you can't elimnate the impact. a car is a large tool for transportation, taking up much more space than many alternatives and putting pedestrians and anybody not in a car at a major inconvenience.
why should I have to wait until the light changes to cross the road?
but I gotta drive down to Seattle, so I should go.
Probably more like 30 over distance; on a road bike 35's not too hard at all, but on a mountain bike MOST people are burning energy pretty quickly at that speed.
Ned Overend not withstanding, of course, that guy has a VO2 max that coul kill a weaker man.
anybody see that X-Files episode where Mulder & Scully were rooting around in the forest and a bunch of not-quite human creatures were killing people in the forest?
I doubt it was based on scientific fact, but walking in the forest might be bad for you.
Think about your breathing; those trees are stealing from your lungs.
> No, you're right. This same 'middle' that they want to sway are also notoriously known for clicking on spam adverts, calling 800#s to buy junk on sale for $19.99, and generally, very simple people.
Slashdot Mirror
A long time ago, when SGI was the darling of the industry and Apple was being lambasted I was fond of pointing out that the same things journalists said about Apple could be said about SGI: niche product, niche market, limited software selection, nice looking hardware but...etc.
The problem is, Apple stopped being like Apple and SGI never did.
I always wanted an SGI workstation though.
Think Sun will be next? If it is, what are we doing to use to replace the dot in dot-com?
For years, we shipped assembly off shore to factories where people would work for 20 cents an hour. From these economic theory, Wal-Mart was born.
Now, they're shipping the labour back here.
Perhaps in future, Wal-Mart will offer sew-it-yourself clothing as well? They could market it as a sweat shop tourist attraction!
Thank you, someone, for introducing the concept of opportunity cost. It's very relevant.
/. search field?
Now could someone tell me what a real alternative is? A browser that DOESN'T access a default search engine? The first thing it does is prompts me to make a choice, probably listing a bunch of options I[prototypical end-user]'ve never heard of/used?
There needs to be a default. Perhaps it should be the
Hotmail has MSN Messenger on its side.
And yes, I know you don't need a Hotmail account to use -- I connect 3 hotmails and 3 non-hotmails every day.
Messenger is the most popular instant messaging service in Canada. Why Microsoft is giving up the MSN brand up here is astounding to me.
But I generally agree: there is little other use to hotmail right now -- it doesn't even save your sent mail by default for more than 30 days in its web interface. Time for a revamp on that service.
try pocketmail, which would let you email your files to yourself:
http://www.pocketmail.com/
there have been others in the past, although some not as portable. ascii output saved to floppy disks was a common interchange format, which you may find useless.
i'd second the sidekick as the best of it's ilk, although i don't own one (and won't buy one.) i may need one for work, in which case I'll bite the bullet perhaps.
an old Psion device (readily availalbe on eBay) might fit your bill, depending on your interface of choice. the keyboards on these were quite palatable.
finding something with USB might be difficult; you may be able to use IRDA to get data off of these, although finding a reasonably modern machine with IRDA appears to be tough - adapters are available that might bring you bliss.
Don't underestimate the ability of the Canadian government to CREATE involved in bureaucracy. We've got a long history of it up here. Our public works department lost over a $1 Billion in a variety of programs; a $25 Million gun control database has now cost over $1 Billion. An entire ministry exists at the Federal level to push money around in a system which is, by definition, controlled at the provincial level.
Yes, we're pretty good at creating bureaucracy when we try. The CRTC isn't even our most heinous example.
As for where Skype fits in, this is the problem we'll face: with technologies that already exist to allow Voice over IP to happen without regulation, why waste time regulating the other stuff?
man. powerpoint is so 1980s
get with keynote already. it's also much cheaper. never crashes either.
At least that's how I thought the news flow went.
it's not even well written old news.
could we move off the april fools topic already? it's 16:00hrs Pacific Time, which means the day is mostly over.
maybe the pope will die, and we can all move back to caring about the real world again.
where's my Tiger, dammit. I want my Tiger!
Fox News is inherently a joke, so wouldn't that be redundant?
Given how astonishingly well Symantec products work on the PC, might this be a case of trying to raise F.U.D. amongst users?
Besides, Apple's market share gains have been - at best - modest to date, love them though I do. Sold another one last night while I was at a climbing gym.
Is this the same Dvorak who's predicted the Mac's death more than once?
I think maybe he needs to be embraced. Man's clearly not healthy.
Does this still count as news? It's been happening in North America for a long time now.
So do any number of server based tools, such as Movable Type. This, in fact, is one of the things I like about Movable Type.
Dreamweaver has a large installed base, because a lot fo small/medium companies liked the idea of buying software. In my experience, if these companies actually spent time looking at their workflow and the time spent, they'd very quickly be able to do math that suggested paying for a competent installation of a content management system.
My first reaction to this post was: Dreamweaver *HAS* powerful templating features? I used it for a while; it was more efficient not too.
Hmm. Crazy.
Had Apple chosen, it could have made the iPod a straightforward MP3 player like any other (iRiver, Creative Nomad etc.) Mount as hard drive, copy files, unmount, listen.
Instead, Apple choice to "prefer" AAC encoded files and create the ITMS could be seen as a market limiting choice, as could it's decision to link iPod & iTunes. Any number of consumers could choose to buy iRiver's products instead, and have a theoretically "open" product.
Sorry Marge, the mob has spoken here. People are buying iPods. In HUGE numbers. Lemme tell ya: I spend time working in a retail store that sells these things: in the last 3 months, I've been asked about the non-iPod hard drive players a handful of times; I've sold exactly none. In contrast, we can't get enough iPods to sell 'em.
This is competition at its best: Apple owns the market. You don't have to buy music from the ITMS if you don't want too, and you don't have to buy an iPod.
Funny - people keep doing both.
Fair enough, I debated the inclusion of the word "far" but was simply too lazy to edit it out. I figured it wasn't central to the point, which had more to do with land use.
I like the Jetta TDI; nice toy. Although I generally am not a fan of Jetta sedans, wagons are nice.
Yes efficient cars should be encouraged, but you need to step back and look at the whole board here.
:)
A fuel efficient Prius has the same impact as a far less efficient Toyota Echo on the road surface. You still need to appropriate a huge swath of my (the taxpayers) land for it to drive on.
Admittedly a Hummer will have more impact on road maintenance than either of the above, but from a land use perspective all three are very similar. They all require asphalt, tarmac and a law enforcement infrastructure designed to manage it. (Unless, of course, the Hummer owner decides to drive wherever, whenever he wants....there's an inherent assumption here that drivers are using roads
I've actually long thought that INSURANCE should be based not on some actuarial reading of a table that says my Volvo is safer than your Camaro (although that should remain a factor) but also on how much one drives - a simple odometer reading.
I have driven marginally in the last year - choosing my bike instead - and yet am paying the same amount of insurance as in previous years (roughly); the fact that I'm driving less obviously reduces the chance that I'll have an accident and this should be reflected in a reduced insurance rate.
So California: legislate insurance by mileage, let private industry do the data collection (and fraud detection) and then tax the insurance cost to pay for land use.
Besides - what's to stop you from blocking the GPS unit by using a lead box or something; these things are line of site still, are they not?
Can you back your comments on Canada's health care system with any evidence?
Empirical, un-substantiated examples have a habit of skewing the view; such things happen in the United States as well.
Patients die in waiting rooms, from malpractice, or because hospitals won't treat them becuase they can't afford to pay the bill. It's pretty easy to make any healthcare system that requires you to make choices look bad by pointing out the mistakes, without evidence of how frequently those happen.
The biggest difference is in Canada, my Grandfather had a double bypass and didn't have to mortgage his house. This is - as Martha Stewart would say - a good thing.
All systems have their downsides, but I'll bet my healthcare system (poorly managed & arguably underfunded as it may currently be) against the American system any day.
I call trump: Canada!
Good point. Much better to swear at the guy anonymously.
This guy had a valid point; the 9 month old link is probably full of largely current information.
Admittedly, the 4 year old link is fairly redundant.
As was your choice of words. You should try to become a presidential running mate; I hear they often talk like that.
ummmm...that's not a backpack...
nor does it convert to one.
Arcteryx makes the Blade 21:a cks&p rod=1026
http://www.arcteryx.com/product.aspx?group=P
and it's the best laptop backpack I've ever owned. I've owned 7.
I like the Arcteryx because:
1) It's a great backpack; the straps are conmfortable and nothing digs into your bag. Why bother wearing a backpack that's not comfortable?
2) It will generally fit any computer; there are limits, but my 15" PowerBook wasn't a problem, even if I choose to carry it (unnecessarily so) in a Neoprene sleeve
3) It has a separate pocket for carrying files etc, which is fairly cavernous. There are two additional pockets for pens/cards/cables etc.
4) It is clean looking, and doesn't look like a dorky Targus notebook bag. The pack itself doesn't really have anything hanging off of it, so it never gets caught on things.
5) It includes a handle that lets you carry the bag briefcase style; very convenient when moving short distances, or arriving at corporate offices.
6) I can use it to carry my avalanche shovel on winter expeditions, although I have another pack that does that as well.
What I don't like about it:
1) Zippers can be bad for shiny white plastic iBooks; if you're carrying one of these, you'd better get a neoprene sleeve or something to avoid scratches (or buy a PowerBook, which was my solution to the problem; the Aluminum doesn't scratch easily.) I like Marware's Neoprene sleeve
2) There is no padding on the top of the bag (the side with the handle.) This is not uncommon - in fact this bag has padding on every other side, which is rare. I blame my golf clubs for it, but I have a minor dent in a corner a of PB which might have been prevented with padding on the top of the bag.
All in all a great bag; I considered some of the Swiss Army products, but they sort of look a bit too back-packy for me in a work environment.
> but it in terms of time, it's still by far the most efficient way to
> go around. And if you can eliminate the ecological impact of
> driving, why not do it instead of wasting away your life at bus
> stops or waiting to be picked up or dropped off?
but that's the point - you can't elimnate the impact. a car is a large tool for transportation, taking up much more space than many alternatives and putting pedestrians and anybody not in a car at a major inconvenience.
why should I have to wait until the light changes to cross the road?
but I gotta drive down to Seattle, so I should go.
Probably more like 30 over distance; on a road bike 35's not too hard at all, but on a mountain bike MOST people are burning energy pretty quickly at that speed.
Ned Overend not withstanding, of course, that guy has a VO2 max that coul kill a weaker man.
anybody see that X-Files episode where Mulder & Scully were rooting around in the forest and a bunch of not-quite human creatures were killing people in the forest?
I doubt it was based on scientific fact, but walking in the forest might be bad for you.
Think about your breathing; those trees are stealing from your lungs.
> No, you're right. This same 'middle' that they want to sway are also notoriously known for clicking on spam adverts, calling 800#s to buy junk on sale for $19.99, and generally, very simple people.
Wow; I hope you run for office someday.
Who do you think surfs the internet the most?