That may be fine for the 1% of computer users out there who actually use the tools. It's far more important to let joe-average user (teacher, student, homemaker, small business owner, retiree etc...) know that there is no real reason to spend extra money on microsoft office products. There are lots of viable alternatives out there, be it StarOffice, AppleWorks or whatever.
In my view the biggest problem is the lack of standards in document formatting these days. For example, if people would simply save word processor files as.rtf instead of.doc we'd all be a lot better off. File convertors are a clumsy non-solution - you don't see us 'converting' e-mails written in Outlook so we can read them in.vi, so why do we continue to operate this way with text files? The proprietary features of Microsoft products (PowerPoint, complex text manipulation in Word etc...) are only really required by a small percentage of business users, in which case the money spent is a good investment.
I think that on the residential scale this is all a bit silly beyond the fun/cool hobby level.
However, there are lots of legitimate industrial/commercial uses for these applications. Take, for example, a restaurant kitchen. You want the cooking/prep time to be as fast as possible so that you can move people through & have more sittings. A waiter with a wireless touchpad could automatically send instructions back to the kitchen incuding special instructions for browning toast to the right level, rareness of steaks etc... Add a few bar code readers to the appliances and you could automate a lot of the routine process while still accounting for the need to customise preparations down to the unit level.
NEO Information Centre
on
What, Me Worry?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
A good discussion of the asteroid/comet collision risk is covered by the Near Earth Object Information Centre's website, which is a not-so-secret agency maintained by the UK government: http://www.nearearthobjects.co.uk
Abstract: Elliptic curves form one of the hottest topics in arithmetic algebraic geometry. Applications of elliptic curves range from a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem to the design of secure cryptosystems. In the lecture we present, as a novel application of elliptic curves, a mathematical analysis of Escher's lithograph `Print Gallery'.
Bochra: "And without [the VISOR], you can see nothing?" LaForge: "That's right." Bochra: "And your parents let you live?" -- "The Enemy", Stardate 43349.2
Re:I misread the header as
on
Social Robot?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
[quote] Robots that will attend the AAA [aaa.com]
(American Automobile Association)...
If robots will really do that - they'll be really social robots! [/quote]
Of course, you'll know the robots have gotten too social when they start attending AA.
Actually, unless someone has been spending way too much free time in Photoshop, the.Mac thing looks pretty plausible. ThinkSecret has posted screen shots of an updated iTools interface with.Mac as the new name.
Having said that, the hoax potential is still there but there's no reason to discount it completely.
I just assumed that the whole point of this "Lindows" deal was to get a computer in the hands of consumers as cheaply as possible, M$ be damned. Once the computer gets home, it's pretty clear that the purchaser is supposed to borrow a Windows XP disk from work/their buddy, re-format the hard drive and install a pirate copy of Windows.
Thus, the main points of this exercise are to 1) give consumers really cheap computers, 2) be able to advertise that they have cheap merchandise, and 3) send a warning shot to M$ that they are too big to be bullied around.
In this sense it really doesn't matter how well Lindows performs, which is a shame because working towards a consumer-grade Linux is worthwhile endeavour.
It's a good read, if for no other reason than gaining the ability to drop "homologation" into your next conversation.
Re:What an amazing piece of engineering!!!
on
World's First Photo
·
· Score: 2
Yawn?
Put this in perspective, man. In 170 years, do you think anyone will be discussing your work?
Re:Apple Has Emptied Several Clips into their Foot
on
iPod for Windows (again)
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The Apple digital monitors are designed to work exceptionally well in tandem with the company's PowerMac G4 offerings. In no way has Apple ever tried to sell them to PC users.
If you were never part of Apple's target market, they didn't really "lose" a sale, did they?
Just want to add that my Sawtooth 400 with Adaptec SCSI 2906 now hibernates!
There was a problem in previous versions where (if I recall correctly) the OS didn't know what to do about supplying power to SCSI PCI cards when the system tried to hibernate, so they just disabled the feature. With the upgade to 10.1.5 it now goes into a deep sleep, which is a big improvement!
You can choose to believe what you want (and these rumours sites are notoriously unreliable), but it has been pretty well documented that Apple is working on something along these lines.
This would not be the company's first foray into the market. Apple history buffs out there will remember the ill-fated MacTV:
http://www.lowendmac.com/500/mactv.shtml
Slashdot Mirror
That may be fine for the 1% of computer users out there who actually use the tools. It's far more important to let joe-average user (teacher, student, homemaker, small business owner, retiree etc...) know that there is no real reason to spend extra money on microsoft office products. There are lots of viable alternatives out there, be it StarOffice, AppleWorks or whatever.
.rtf instead of .doc we'd all be a lot better off. File convertors are a clumsy non-solution - you don't see us 'converting' e-mails written in Outlook so we can read them in .vi, so why do we continue to operate this way with text files? The proprietary features of Microsoft products (PowerPoint, complex text manipulation in Word etc...) are only really required by a small percentage of business users, in which case the money spent is a good investment.
In my view the biggest problem is the lack of standards in document formatting these days. For example, if people would simply save word processor files as
I think that on the residential scale this is all a bit silly beyond the fun/cool hobby level.
However, there are lots of legitimate industrial/commercial uses for these applications. Take, for example, a restaurant kitchen. You want the cooking/prep time to be as fast as possible so that you can move people through & have more sittings. A waiter with a wireless touchpad could automatically send instructions back to the kitchen incuding special instructions for browning toast to the right level, rareness of steaks etc... Add a few bar code readers to the appliances and you could automate a lot of the routine process while still accounting for the need to customise preparations down to the unit level.
A good discussion of the asteroid/comet collision risk is covered by the Near Earth Object Information Centre's website, which is a not-so-secret agency maintained by the UK government:
/. discussion along similar lines from back in September 2000:
http://www.nearearthobjects.co.uk
Also of note is a
UK Publishes Asteroid Armageddon Report
Lenstra gave a talk on the subject at the HP Research Labs Colloquium last July:
m
http://www.hpl.hp.com/infotheory/lenstra071101.ht
Abstract:
Elliptic curves form one of the hottest topics in arithmetic algebraic geometry. Applications of elliptic curves range from a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem to the design of secure cryptosystems. In the lecture we present, as a novel application of elliptic curves, a mathematical analysis of Escher's lithograph `Print Gallery'.
Bochra: "And without [the VISOR], you can see nothing?"
LaForge: "That's right."
Bochra: "And your parents let you live?"
-- "The Enemy", Stardate 43349.2
[quote]
Robots that will attend the AAA [aaa.com] (American Automobile Association)... If robots will really do that - they'll be really social robots!
[/quote]
Of course, you'll know the robots have gotten too social when they start attending AA.
I have full support with my Yamaha 8424SZ (or whatever the letters are). It's a stock PC version that "just works" in 10.1.5. Very nice integration.
A good source for scsi compatibility is: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/scsi_.html
I hear their next project is to turn Churchill, Manitoba into Sili-Hudson's Bay.
How many years do you think the introduction of Jar Jar Binks has set back the quest to gain legitimacy for your industry?
Does anyone actually use QuickTime?
I wonder if this was released ahead of schedule (assuming it was intended for Wednesday's keynote) to counter M$'s whining from earlier today.
Actually, unless someone has been spending way too much free time in Photoshop, the .Mac thing looks pretty plausible. ThinkSecret has posted screen shots of an updated iTools interface with .Mac as the new name.
Having said that, the hoax potential is still there but there's no reason to discount it completely.
See here for screenshot
Of course, a major design flaw is the use of Australian coins, which only go about 56% as far as American ones.
http://au.finance.yahoo.com/m5?a=1&s=AUD&t=USD
I just assumed that the whole point of this "Lindows" deal was to get a computer in the hands of consumers as cheaply as possible, M$ be damned. Once the computer gets home, it's pretty clear that the purchaser is supposed to borrow a Windows XP disk from work/their buddy, re-format the hard drive and install a pirate copy of Windows.
Thus, the main points of this exercise are to 1) give consumers really cheap computers, 2) be able to advertise that they have cheap merchandise, and 3) send a warning shot to M$ that they are too big to be bullied around.
In this sense it really doesn't matter how well Lindows performs, which is a shame because working towards a consumer-grade Linux is worthwhile endeavour.
It appears that the rules for balloon flights are established by The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI):
http://www.fai.org/ballooning/rtw2-98.asp
There's lots of interesting info on their website at http://www.fai.org/
It's a good read, if for no other reason than gaining the ability to drop "homologation" into your next conversation.
Yawn?
Put this in perspective, man. In 170 years, do you think anyone will be discussing your work?
The Apple digital monitors are designed to work exceptionally well in tandem with the company's PowerMac G4 offerings. In no way has Apple ever tried to sell them to PC users.
If you were never part of Apple's target market, they didn't really "lose" a sale, did they?
Just want to add that my Sawtooth 400 with Adaptec SCSI 2906 now hibernates!
There was a problem in previous versions where (if I recall correctly) the OS didn't know what to do about supplying power to SCSI PCI cards when the system tried to hibernate, so they just disabled the feature. With the upgade to 10.1.5 it now goes into a deep sleep, which is a big improvement!
There are rumours that Apple's next digital device will, in fact, be some sort of home theatre device:
http://www.macosrumors.com
You can choose to believe what you want (and these rumours sites are notoriously unreliable), but it has been pretty well documented that Apple is working on something along these lines.
This would not be the company's first foray into the market. Apple history buffs out there will remember the ill-fated MacTV:
http://www.lowendmac.com/500/mactv.shtml