Directory Opus. Five major releases on the Amiga; now at release 10.x on Windows.
If you have to use a PC running Microsoft Windows; it is at least nice to have the Linus blanket of a *working*, highly multi-threaded, File Manager written by a competent programmer!
I'm sorry, I realize that somebody spent a lot of effort and thought they were doing something really cool; however I have to give the mobile site a "fail".
Its page loading and scrolling performance is not acceptable in any of the Browsers on my dual-core phone: Opera, Dolphin, FireFox, Chrome--it feels high-latency: bloated and clunky. [...sort of like the type of user interaction expectations I would have from a Word Processor written in VisualAda.NET!]
Oh Yea?
Think again Buckwheat!
I've got a little "zoo" of well over 20 unique Boot Sector Virii for the C=64. I have well over a a hundred virus variants for the Amiga... [then again--I was a Production Engineer at Commodore responsible for the Duplication Masters] If ever you get too smug with your Mosaic/Voyager Browser on a network segment that I control--you will see GURU Meditation so fast the the capacitors in your Monitor will POP!
As for GEOS--got the source code. I'm sure there is something "interesting" that could be exploited at 2400 baud... [anybody got a simulation of Quantum Link running???]
Now, VMS 3.5, there was a "virus proof" OS... No wait--3 of the 5 machines on my cluster got the Morris Worm--Sigh!
Given that my significant other is moving in with me, some "adjustments" have been made to my single-Engineer lifestyle..
This past week I delivered unto the philistine clutches of the local Electronics Recycler:
Six Amiga 1200 Computers; [14 MHz MC68EC020/2MB/120MB EIDE HDD]
Four Amiga 3000 Computers; [16 and 25 MHz MC68030/18MB/105 to 400 MB SCSI HDD's]
Two Amiga 4000 Computers; [25 MHz MC68040/18MB/250MB SCSI HDD's]
Five Amiga 4000T PCBA's;
Two VideoToasters;
1 Moniterm Monitor;
40 SCSI HDD's; [of various generations--including an originally USD$4000 Maxtor "Magic" 1.2GB]
10 UHD-FDD's; [1.76MB 3.5"]
Two DC250 SCSI Tape Drives; [and about 100 Tapes--incl. the contents of every Amiga Pirate BBS in USA circa 1992]
One Irwin FDD-interface tape drive; [another dozen or so tapes]
One Microtek 4800dpi SCSI Flat-bed Scanner;
About a dozen PC Motherboards--VLB, PCI, and expansion boards--a bunch of Adaptec SCI host adapters going back to ISA;
Three Northgate Omni-Ultra Keyboards;
A box of "Cherry" ERGO Keyboards;
a couple of EGA Monitors;
and about 20 tubes of 4Mbit Flash Memory that I paid USD$70/pc for!!!
The Commodore SX64 stays!
What's left? Mostly Engineering documentation--Schematics, BOM's, Service Manuals--and plus a couple of functioning CDTV's, an A1000 and a A2500HD...
[and the video game collection from hell...I've got any GameStop seriously beat!]
Sigh.
Actually--have you had a look a the the total mess that is the Audio Mixer since Vista?
That was not implemented "in the best interests of the Customer"...
Blah.
Its not quite true. As with fungus reducing tree trunks in the forest--Patent Trolls have a place in the Business Ecosystem--they create a market for the IP property of the fallen. This makes the effective "Price of Failure" a non-zero sum.
This makes Banks, Bridge-Loan-Specialists, etc. willing to loan to High-Tech Start-ups that are one the ropes. There will be a market, admittedly small, market for the un-marketable.
For those of us who have gone from Start-up to Start-up--even mushrooms are a source of nutrition!!!
The *BL's are reference resources. Some free, some by subscription. They block nothing. The blocking agency continues to be _your_ Email Administrator--as it is that individual who makes the determination which *BL to reference and how much weight to give to its pronouncements. As such, any "power" that an "*BL" has devolves from the opinion of its subscribers as to the value/validity of its judgments. They can be as rabid as they will--if the Email Admins who look to them devalue their judgments--the impact will be minimal. So--don't bother complaining to the *BL operators--have a chat with the Email administrators with the orgainization you echange Email with--if they agree that the *BL is not doing its job--they will lower the weight they give that *BL. [...or not--if they share the opinion that you view is not correct!]
Actually--cheaper than everything "back in the day".
Consider: The original C=64 in 1983 had 300 discrete components and a manufacturing cost of ~USD$280 with a retail list of USD$595. When I worked on the last generation of the motherboard,1993, we were down to 7 discrete components--and the shrimk wrapped/boxed assembly was about USD$37 FOB Taiwan.
Now you basically have a "Super C=64" as a single component--not incl. of the batter holder and connectors selling for USD$25--RETAIL!!! [which, adjusted for inflation is basically $12-ish 1993 dollars...]
--JSS, Commodore Electronics LTD., Class of '94.
Another exchange with ErikD at BEKIN:
---- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Deming"
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 12:48 AM
Subject: RE: Let's review that belkin dot com home page again...
> Can you tell me how Belkin can "commented" a wrong...?
>
> Do you actually own a Belkin router product? I would like to know. If our corrective actions don't seem to be of your acceptance, please detail what your objection is and I will try to fully address it.
>
Over the years my firm has purchased many hundreds of BELKIN products--we have WiFi adapters, Routers, KVM's, Cables beyond counting. [we are a SW development firm with lots of home offices that are near either a Staples or a COMPUSA]
And the issue is not if we have any samples of your current fiasco--its that your firm crossed a line. The last time in this industry I have been this pissed off with the actions of a vendor was when Digital Equipment Corp. released the PRO350. [The PRO350 was a Desktop PDP/11 in which all applications had to be purchased via a central clearing house--as every binary was tied to the CPU's serial number--and it could not format floppy diskettes--you had to purchase "pre-formatted" FD's that were serial numbered/linked in a database to your CPU serial #] Comcast also came close this past year with their "transparent" HTTP caching and URL mining/tracking. [their actions were modified via the actions of a MI law firm and a threatened class action--and followed by very public statements from their CEO on the topic!]
There is _never_ an excuse for an action such as your firm's. [without clear disclosure at the point of purchase]
There is a simple advantage here--unlike DEC or Comcast--you have competition for every product your sell. DEC was, Comcast is, a monopoly. As a customer we had/have no leverage. With BELKIN we do. The loss of a single Couple hundred $$$/QTR customer is trivial. But as I meet with the IT staffs of our customers, as I go to Trade Shows, as family, neighbors, friends, ask for my suggestions on SOHO equipment to purchase--that will have an impact over time. There will be, at some small level, a general distaste for purchasing your firm's products.
Many firms have been treating their customers as exploitable resources. Your firm made the big mistake--you have no leverage. Your customers have alternatives. As a lesson to your management, and that of the other firms for which their customers do not have such leverage, their needs to be an appropriate set of customer actions so that the next time any idiot in a product management meeting suggests such a course--collective wisdom will prevent such poor behavior from becoming a reality.
Regards,
(1) Read the "End User License Agreement" that Comcast requires of its customers--it is in explicit contradition to their public statements w/r to the collection and use of end user communications. [they claim explicit ownership of the data that you place on their networks as a subscriber]
(2) If Comcast were to exercise its self-promoted rights under said agreement--and I have some technical evidence that they have--then not only are they at issue with the 1984 Federal satute--but, Pennsylvania's 1996 ammendment to its Cable TV Act. [I would strongly suspect that other states' Cable Acts are cast from the same template]
As to no collection of "personally indentifiable information"--that's patent nonsense. The architecture of the the DOCCIS v.1.1 infrastructure that Comcast has implemented requires the explicit registration of every communications device on their network with a specific subscriber account--each datagram produced by every device on the Comcast network is directly identifiable to a specific subscriber account. The nature of the proxy is such that a query on the order of "Show me all data transactions that the household of Smith, John S. has enganged in with http://www.cnn.com over the past 12 hours" is a trivial undertaking--requiring perhaps 15 minutes worth of effort. [the MAC# of the DOCCIS modem is recorded in the billing/user account database--the rest is a trivial filtering/datbase query exercise]
Slashdot Mirror
Directory Opus. Five major releases on the Amiga; now at release 10.x on Windows.
If you have to use a PC running Microsoft Windows; it is at least nice to have the Linus blanket of a *working*, highly multi-threaded, File Manager written by a competent programmer!
I'm sorry, I realize that somebody spent a lot of effort and thought they were doing something really cool; however I have to give the mobile site a "fail".
Its page loading and scrolling performance is not acceptable in any of the Browsers on my dual-core phone: Opera, Dolphin, FireFox, Chrome--it feels high-latency: bloated and clunky. [...sort of like the type of user interaction expectations I would have from a Word Processor written in VisualAda.NET!]
Sigh,
New COKE, New Slashdot--back to "Classic".
Basically non-functional on either my phone or the Android Tablet I am current developing on:
Android 2.3 & 4.0 w/ current Opera for Android.
This is a rough crowd--would be nice if a "Mobile Site" would work with a pair of pretty vanilla "Mobile Devices".
Maybe Slashdot needs a QA department?
Oh Yea? Think again Buckwheat! I've got a little "zoo" of well over 20 unique Boot Sector Virii for the C=64. I have well over a a hundred virus variants for the Amiga... [then again--I was a Production Engineer at Commodore responsible for the Duplication Masters] If ever you get too smug with your Mosaic/Voyager Browser on a network segment that I control--you will see GURU Meditation so fast the the capacitors in your Monitor will POP! As for GEOS--got the source code. I'm sure there is something "interesting" that could be exploited at 2400 baud... [anybody got a simulation of Quantum Link running???] Now, VMS 3.5, there was a "virus proof" OS... No wait--3 of the 5 machines on my cluster got the Morris Worm--Sigh!
Given that my significant other is moving in with me, some "adjustments" have been made to my single-Engineer lifestyle.. This past week I delivered unto the philistine clutches of the local Electronics Recycler: Six Amiga 1200 Computers; [14 MHz MC68EC020/2MB/120MB EIDE HDD] Four Amiga 3000 Computers; [16 and 25 MHz MC68030/18MB/105 to 400 MB SCSI HDD's] Two Amiga 4000 Computers; [25 MHz MC68040/18MB/250MB SCSI HDD's] Five Amiga 4000T PCBA's; Two VideoToasters; 1 Moniterm Monitor; 40 SCSI HDD's; [of various generations--including an originally USD$4000 Maxtor "Magic" 1.2GB] 10 UHD-FDD's; [1.76MB 3.5"] Two DC250 SCSI Tape Drives; [and about 100 Tapes--incl. the contents of every Amiga Pirate BBS in USA circa 1992] One Irwin FDD-interface tape drive; [another dozen or so tapes] One Microtek 4800dpi SCSI Flat-bed Scanner; About a dozen PC Motherboards--VLB, PCI, and expansion boards--a bunch of Adaptec SCI host adapters going back to ISA; Three Northgate Omni-Ultra Keyboards; A box of "Cherry" ERGO Keyboards; a couple of EGA Monitors; and about 20 tubes of 4Mbit Flash Memory that I paid USD$70/pc for!!! The Commodore SX64 stays! What's left? Mostly Engineering documentation--Schematics, BOM's, Service Manuals--and plus a couple of functioning CDTV's, an A1000 and a A2500HD... [and the video game collection from hell...I've got any GameStop seriously beat!] Sigh.
Actually--have you had a look a the the total mess that is the Audio Mixer since Vista? That was not implemented "in the best interests of the Customer"... Blah.
Its not quite true. As with fungus reducing tree trunks in the forest--Patent Trolls have a place in the Business Ecosystem--they create a market for the IP property of the fallen. This makes the effective "Price of Failure" a non-zero sum. This makes Banks, Bridge-Loan-Specialists, etc. willing to loan to High-Tech Start-ups that are one the ropes. There will be a market, admittedly small, market for the un-marketable. For those of us who have gone from Start-up to Start-up--even mushrooms are a source of nutrition!!!
Well... Sandals w/o the ponytail. [Mountain climbing boots w/suspenders in the winter--like any good, former, VAX-Geek should!]
The *BL's are reference resources. Some free, some by subscription. They block nothing. The blocking agency continues to be _your_ Email Administrator--as it is that individual who makes the determination which *BL to reference and how much weight to give to its pronouncements. As such, any "power" that an "*BL" has devolves from the opinion of its subscribers as to the value/validity of its judgments. They can be as rabid as they will--if the Email Admins who look to them devalue their judgments--the impact will be minimal. So--don't bother complaining to the *BL operators--have a chat with the Email administrators with the orgainization you echange Email with--if they agree that the *BL is not doing its job--they will lower the weight they give that *BL. [...or not--if they share the opinion that you view is not correct!]
Actually--cheaper than everything "back in the day". Consider: The original C=64 in 1983 had 300 discrete components and a manufacturing cost of ~USD$280 with a retail list of USD$595. When I worked on the last generation of the motherboard,1993, we were down to 7 discrete components--and the shrimk wrapped/boxed assembly was about USD$37 FOB Taiwan. Now you basically have a "Super C=64" as a single component--not incl. of the batter holder and connectors selling for USD$25--RETAIL!!! [which, adjusted for inflation is basically $12-ish 1993 dollars...] --JSS, Commodore Electronics LTD., Class of '94.
Another exchange with ErikD at BEKIN: ---- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Deming" Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 12:48 AM Subject: RE: Let's review that belkin dot com home page again... > Can you tell me how Belkin can "commented" a wrong...? > > Do you actually own a Belkin router product? I would like to know. If our corrective actions don't seem to be of your acceptance, please detail what your objection is and I will try to fully address it. > Over the years my firm has purchased many hundreds of BELKIN products--we have WiFi adapters, Routers, KVM's, Cables beyond counting. [we are a SW development firm with lots of home offices that are near either a Staples or a COMPUSA] And the issue is not if we have any samples of your current fiasco--its that your firm crossed a line. The last time in this industry I have been this pissed off with the actions of a vendor was when Digital Equipment Corp. released the PRO350. [The PRO350 was a Desktop PDP/11 in which all applications had to be purchased via a central clearing house--as every binary was tied to the CPU's serial number--and it could not format floppy diskettes--you had to purchase "pre-formatted" FD's that were serial numbered/linked in a database to your CPU serial #] Comcast also came close this past year with their "transparent" HTTP caching and URL mining/tracking. [their actions were modified via the actions of a MI law firm and a threatened class action--and followed by very public statements from their CEO on the topic!] There is _never_ an excuse for an action such as your firm's. [without clear disclosure at the point of purchase] There is a simple advantage here--unlike DEC or Comcast--you have competition for every product your sell. DEC was, Comcast is, a monopoly. As a customer we had/have no leverage. With BELKIN we do. The loss of a single Couple hundred $$$/QTR customer is trivial. But as I meet with the IT staffs of our customers, as I go to Trade Shows, as family, neighbors, friends, ask for my suggestions on SOHO equipment to purchase--that will have an impact over time. There will be, at some small level, a general distaste for purchasing your firm's products. Many firms have been treating their customers as exploitable resources. Your firm made the big mistake--you have no leverage. Your customers have alternatives. As a lesson to your management, and that of the other firms for which their customers do not have such leverage, their needs to be an appropriate set of customer actions so that the next time any idiot in a product management meeting suggests such a course--collective wisdom will prevent such poor behavior from becoming a reality. Regards,
(1) Read the "End User License Agreement" that Comcast requires of its customers--it is in explicit contradition to their public statements w/r to the collection and use of end user communications. [they claim explicit ownership of the data that you place on their networks as a subscriber] (2) If Comcast were to exercise its self-promoted rights under said agreement--and I have some technical evidence that they have--then not only are they at issue with the 1984 Federal satute--but, Pennsylvania's 1996 ammendment to its Cable TV Act. [I would strongly suspect that other states' Cable Acts are cast from the same template] As to no collection of "personally indentifiable information"--that's patent nonsense. The architecture of the the DOCCIS v.1.1 infrastructure that Comcast has implemented requires the explicit registration of every communications device on their network with a specific subscriber account--each datagram produced by every device on the Comcast network is directly identifiable to a specific subscriber account. The nature of the proxy is such that a query on the order of "Show me all data transactions that the household of Smith, John S. has enganged in with http://www.cnn.com over the past 12 hours" is a trivial undertaking--requiring perhaps 15 minutes worth of effort. [the MAC# of the DOCCIS modem is recorded in the billing/user account database--the rest is a trivial filtering/datbase query exercise]